


Folie à Deux

by Uwansumadamboi



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Serial Killers, Bloodplay, Dark Comedy, Dom/sub, Dysfunctional Family, Emotional Manipulation, Gratuitous Smut, Grooming, M/M, Murder Husbands, Murder Kink, Non-Consensual Spanking, Power Imbalance, Shameless Smut, Stalking, Sugar Daddy, Twisted and Fluffy Feelings, Unhealthy Relationships
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-15
Updated: 2018-01-04
Packaged: 2018-12-15 16:59:02
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 25,856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11810292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Uwansumadamboi/pseuds/Uwansumadamboi
Summary: 'The dictionary describes Folie A Duex as a shared madness of two people' , Rhys thought as Jack held him suffocatingly close and murmured deceitfully sweet, honeyed words into his bloody ear and pressed butterfly kisses to his neck every so often. 'There's gotta be something wrong with me.' he thinks and then when he begins to lean into the touch he amends the thought with, 'Scratch that, there's definitely something wrong with me.'\..........****........../In which experienced killer Handsome Jack catches Rhys in Hugo Vasquez' home, covered in blood and kneeling next to his dead body, saying a few choice words to his corpse.Instead of doing the right thing and calling the cops, Jack does what's right for him and takes Rhys away to turn him into the perfect killer through any means possible.





	1. Chance Arrangement.

**Author's Note:**

> I really need to stop coming up with new AUs i got like 4 long fics in progress. Oh Well, I gotta be me.
> 
> This is low-key inspired by Kinda Outta Luck and Off To The Races by Lana Del Rey because daddy kink.
> 
> ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

           By all rights, Rhys wasn’t a killer. At least that’s what _believed_ , what he told himself. Normal people didn’t go around envisioning the deaths of people, right?

Then again, Most people didn’t have the worlds most persistent stalker in the world now did they?

Rhys sighed, collecting himself as he walked up to Hyperions’ workers housing. He had to flirt his way into the door because he didn’t work for Hyperion anymore, couldn’t work for Hyperion anymore.

His life had been uprooted so much by Vasquez’ creepy obsession with him that he had to quit the job he had been working up in the ranks in and find an entire different line of work just to make sure that the creep wouldn’t find him at Torgue or Maliwan and start harassing him again.

He had to get Vasquez to stop following him, he had just gotten a good job and finally settled himself in, he couldn’t move again and he knew from experience that once he figured out where Rhys worked, he would figure out where he lived and start sending threats to his new friends…

He couldn’t do that again so here he was, ringing Vasquez’ door bell continuously until he answered. The man seemed momentarily surprised by him, but quickly recovered with a smarmy grin plastered over his face.

“Hugo.” He curtly regarded his stalker, a sick feeling crawling through him.

“Haven’t seen you in a while, Rhys.” Vasquez crooned, “You look _good_.”

He visibly cringed at the leering that Hugo was doing, the thought in his head that this was a very, very bad idea crossed his mind. “I came here to talk to you,” He swallowed audibly, crossing his arms over his chest. “I’m trying to be civil.”

“Then you should come in here and be _civil_.” Hugo condescended to him, “I don’t think you want all of our dirty laundry airing for everyone to hear.”

Against his better judgment, Rhys did walk into Vasquez’ apartment. He looked around the space like he was expecting there to be plastered photographs of him on every corner, but no, just a rather bland apartment with furniture that had probably been provided by the owners of the building.

“You want something to drink?” Vasquez cloyed, “I can make one of those fruity things that I know you like.”

He didn’t bother asking how he knew what Rhys liked to drink, and straitened out in a business-like manner. “You need to stop, Hugo.” Rhys tried, hoping that being rational and calm about the whole situation would have it diffused, however little chance of it being within the realms of reality. “You need to stop, stop following me! Stop taking pictures of me, stop trying to scare off my dates! Just **stop**!”

“Oh, that’s what you’re here for?” he shook his head like Rhys was the sick one in the room, like he was _stupid._  “Why would I ever do that?”

“What the hell are you-” he started, feeling dread as Vasquez neared him.

“Why would I leave you alone when I got you right here?”

It occurred to him then just how futile this whole  _visit_ had been. Hugo was a delusional son of a bitch, he wasn't just going to stop tailing him because Rhys had asked him nicely to knock it off. No, if he was ever going to get any agency over his life back...then Vasquez had to die. Rhys didn't give himself the chance to think long and hard about the consequences of what he was doing before he reached for something big and heavy and crashed it over his stalkers' head.

Once Hugo was somewhat incapacitated he rooted around for something sharp and found his match with a meat cleaver, he took a deep breath to collect himself somewhat as he sliced into the bigger man.

“You _son of a bitch!_ ” He screeched at Vasquez, as the more burly man keeled over in pain. “You couldn’t just leave me alone?!” he screamed as he drove the knife into him over, and over, and over. _“you are sick!” Slice, “You’ve ruined everything for me!” slice!, “What,” Slice, “The fuck!” slice, “Is wrong with you?!”_

At some point Rhys stopped being there, mentally. Just went through the motions of slicing and stabbing without truly acknowledging what he was doing.

Rhys found himself frightened by his own sense of calm as he kneeled on the floor, the slippery blood covered knife still trapped between his shaking hands.

 _‘There’s no way out of this’_ , realized numbly as he bit down so hard on his lip that the taste of his own blood filled his mouth, _‘I might be going to prison. I’ll definitely never have the freedom I came here for.’_

* * *

  
“Handsome” Jack Lawrence wasn’t the type of man who could stand for not getting what he wanted when he wanted it. And from where he was, this pretty auburn boy who was practically dripping with the blood of one of his executives company apartment was something he was beginning to covet.

And Handsome Jack didn’t covet, no, Handsome Jack took.

In any case, the aforementioned pretty auburn haired boy was kneeling next to the corpse with a morose look on his face, he was murmuring something mean and harsh to the corpse.

“You’re not Wallet-head.” Jack remarked with grim amusement, “what are you doing here, pumpkin?”

“Handsome Jack,” Rhys breathed fearfully, “Y-you’re Hugos’ boss,” he ducked his head, practically touching his chest with his chin. He was still kneeling, still refusing to look at Jack. He couldn’t look at the other man, couldn’t acknowledge what was surely to be his one way trip to federal prison.

Jack took one of Rhys’ slender arms and pulled him to his feet. “You got a name, sweet heart?” his voice came out saccharine sweet as he manhandled the younger man in his grip, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you before, I would’a remembered.”

“I...” Rhys trailed off, suddenly feeling very disarmed and over powered by the other man. “My names Rhys.”

“Well, Rhysie.” Handsome Jack crooned, taking the younger mans’ chin in his hand and lifting it up so Rhys was forced to look at him, “Take a look at the mess you made, pumpkin.” Jacks’ iron grip maneuvered Rhys’ face towards Vasquez’ brutalized corpse. “Clever little killer.” he added in the most complimentary way he could muster. “So brutal.”

“No, I – I didn’t mean to… I was just defending myself!” Rhys sobbed out and Jack watched the display with a perverse sort of fascination. He’d get over that superficial feeling of remorse pretty quick, he guessed.

“Don’t lie to me, sugar.” Jack snapped, “You see that?” He asked, directing his eyes at ol’ Wallet heads corpse. “That’s not self-defense.”

That wasn’t to say that Rhys had intended to kill Vasquez, because knowing exactly how slimy of a person wallet-head was he probably deserved every stab, nick and cut. That meant he had it in him, Rhys could do it again, if given enough reassurance and care and a healthy amount of fear.

Malleable, he thinks would be the perfect word to describe him. He could be the perfect partner with enough patience and time.

“You look real pretty covered in some idiots’ blood, babe.” Jack said to him in a tone meant to excite and tempt, “Did you like it, when he was pissing himself in fear? Hmm? Did it make you feel good?”

Rhys seemed to snap out of it in that moment, and made a move to run from the man but Jack was quick on the uptake.

“Oh no you don’t!” he roared as he bashed his head against the wall, hard enough to have him concussed.

Rhys looked at him starry eyed, all of his previous thoughts had flown out of the window. “I’m sorry.” he mumbled, “I ‘unno wha’ I did but ‘m sorry.”

“Don’t you worry about it, baby.” Jack cooed, the hands that had just before been used to incapacitated Rhys were now soothingly running through his hair and down his back as the younger man clung to him like he was his only hope for survival. “Daddy’ll take care of everything for you.”

“D-daddy?” he hiccuped, looking at the older man in a way that had Jack thinking it was the perfect thing to call himself.

Rhys slumped over, partially unconscious and Jack tutted at him as he looked around for something to wrap the kid up in – his clothes would have to be destroyed, they were just covered in blood – so he could get him to his new home.

* * *

  
             When Rhys woke up, he had the worst, most side-splitting head ache he’d had since his college days. Not only that but he felt, other than the initial pain, really comfortable. He looked down and realized with a shock, that not only was he in some strangers’ bed but he was completely naked.

He didn’t have much time to wonder what the hell was happening to him before the startlingly familiar face of Handsome Jack looking down on him, with a tray of food in hand. “Mornin’ pumpkin,” He sneered, “Did’ya have a nice nap?” he added glibly.

He thought of asking all the typical questions like; why am I here? Where am I? What do you want with me?

But instead he impulsively hissed, “I’m naked.” at the older man with a tone full of accusation. “Why am I naked?” he tightened his knees together in some show for modesty that had his kidnapper scoffing at the implication.

Jack put his hands up in mock surrender, “All I did was wash all that blood off of you, it’s not my fault that you’re so scrawny. I don’t have any clothes that would fit you.”

“Could I at least get a shirt to wear?”

Jack sighed, pulling his own sweater over his head and tossing it to Rhys, who quickly picked it up and put it on himself. He noted with some displeasure that it definitely was much bigger on him than he would have thought.

“Cute.” The older man commented, “You’re real cute Rhysie.”

“Are you going to kill me?” Rhys’ voice came out incredibly deadpan as he asked the question, too tired to fight the other man off if that’s what he wished.

“Why the hell would I do that?” Jack countered, “You’re worth more to me alive than dead.”

“For what?” He asked, knowing the answer wouldn’t be one that he’d actually want to know.

“You got potential baby,” Jack answered back, completely serious. “What you did to Wallet head, that was,” he puffed out his breath, “inspired.”

Rhys’ brows knit together in confusion, “I don’t understand?”

“I’m gonna turn you into an amazing killer.”

“No, I don’t want that.” He protested, “I don’t want to kill any more people.”

That wasn’t too say that he felt bad for killing Hugo, he didn’t feel anything for the man who had been tormenting him since he had locked eyes with Rhys; following him home, taking pictures of him in his house, sending his girlfriend at the time death threats and going so far as to track down his family.

No, that was someone who definitely deserved every cut that he got.

In one fell swoop Rhys was crashed back onto his back again and he winced as Jack held him in place easily, “I don’t think you understand the position that you’re in here, Cupcake.” Jack growled to the younger man, his grip on the younger mans’ shoulders tightened further, “Either you do what I fucking tell you or you go to prison.”

How dare he try to deny him like this? How dare Rhys deny the chance to be something great. “Do you want to go to jail, Rhysie? Do you want to get passed around like some whore?”

“N-no,” He answered honestly, his courage deflated. “I don’t want to go to prison.” he had the strangest urge to apologize to Jack but that...that was _crazy_.

He hadn’t done anything to apologize for, right?

“I’m sorry.” He croaked out anyway, hoping that it would placate the man so he stopped looking at him so _ferally_.

It seemed to be the right thing to do because the man grinned at him in a pleased manner and before Rhys had a chance to flinch back, Jack crashed his lips into the younger mans’ harshly and his position on top of the younger man became painfully clear as Jack leaned over him and continued his brutal assault against his shell shocked lips.

Rhys wasn’t sure how to react, so he just let every sensation that Jack gave him wash over him. He played the part of the submissive little toy perfectly.

Jack pulled away from him suddenly and Rhys hated himself for whining at the loss of contact. _'This isn’t right'_ , he reminded himself, ‘ _Jack is my kidnapper, he’s a serial killer. he’s dangerous.’_

“Be a good boy for me, Rhysie.” He called as he strode out of the room, “I gotta go and take care of your little problem.”

Rhys was left with kiss bruised lips and complete confusion at his captors complete one eighty and appalled by his own willingness and accepting behavior of what was being done to him.


	2. Jacks' Malibu Murder House

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the chapter with the non-con spanking btw
> 
> Rhys starts out pretty reluctant and ends....not so reluctantly so..that's fun.

Rhys was getting pretty tired of sitting here in this room. He was piss bored and it had gotten to the point where he was pretty sure that he would rather it if Jack just killed him or did something to him already. All this anticipation was managing to do was drive him up the goddamn wall.

He’s not sure how long it’s been since he’s been in this room. Days? Weeks? Months? Hours?

“Probably hours,” he hummed to himself, if only to fill up the silence of the room. Jack had gone away to get rid of the body that he had carelessly left there because he had been concussed and kidnapped.

He didn’t even care about any of that anymore. All he wanted was to not be in this room with nothing to do but talk to himself and think, think about things that he never wanted to acknowledge.

Like how Jack believed that he could be some kind of famous serial killer – with his help.

The whole thing was just ridiculous. He hadn’t gone in there with any intentions of killing Vasquez, he had just snapped because he was so tired of all the running and all the moving around from state to state...all the fear.  
So, of course he enjoyed it! Hugo Vasquez made his life hell for over two years all because he had been some dumb college graduate who just wanted to be nice to someone that most people put forth effort to avoid.

It didn’t mean that Rhys was the next Hannibal – fucking – Lecter or anything like that, all it meant was he was at the end of his rope. He snapped and hit his breaking point, and put in his situation he was that anyone would have done the same.

Rhys was shocked out of his thoughts by Handsome Jack, the guy who kidnapped him loudly entering the room he was caged in, “Hey’a pumpkin!” he greeted jovially.

The younger man refused to feed into that sort of falsified kindness and just nodded towards him, his arms crossed over his chest as he kept himself wrapped in the blankets like they were a fleece crafted armor.

“Aw, come on!” Jack goaded, sitting down on the bed next to Rhys. “That’s really how you’re gonna greet me, after all I did for you? I saved your ass!” He didn’t give Rhys a chance to react before he took hold of Rhys’ face and yanked him towards the other man, “C’mon sunshine, tell me hello.”

“Hello.” He replied curtly, outright refusing to do more than regard the other man cordially. He barely looked at Jack, still infuriated with his situation.

If Jack was offended by Rhys’ lack of friendliness, he didn’t show it. He just looked at Rhys’ flustered face and unusually messy hair with a veneer of fondness, “You didn’t eat.” he commented, looking at the virtually untouched tray of food from the last time Jack visited him.

“Couldn’t eat it.” Rhys supplied with a halfhearted shrug. “I don’t eat meat.”

“Really?” Jack asked with an arch of his brow, a wry smirk plastered over his face.

“Yeah,” Rhys bit back, folding his arms across his chest petulantly. “I don’t appreciate the way slaughterhouses operate. I haven’t touched anything with meat in it since I was fourteen so...Y’know. I’m not fucking touching it.”

“Was I hallucinating or did you just butcher the shit out of a guy last night?” and before Rhys could flippantly reply Jack added, “Uh tuh ta! Don’t answer that.”

Instead Rhys countered him with, “Well, I didn’t eat him.”

Jack shrugged as if to say, ‘Yeah, okay. Fair point.’

Rhys hummed, “Besides, I couldn’t really garner any sort of appetite with my brain feeling like it got punched in the face.” he might be willing to play ball with his captor but that didn’t suggest he was at all willing to act like he wasn’t a total bastard.

“That wasn’t my fault.” Jack stated stubbornly looking down his nose at Rhys in a way that had him screaming internally.

“You bashed my head in.” Rhys seethed at Jack, infuriated with the nerve of the man.

“You tried to run,” Jack reminded him, “And I couldn’t have that.”

Rhys was ready to scream at the man or throw something at him in his frustration when Jack throws down a seemingly full overnight bag and he looked up at the man, disarmed and confused, “What is this?” he asked instead, without any sort of flippant anger.

“You’re roomie works at Hyperion, babe.” Jack replied looking at Rhys like he was about to laugh at Rhys for not remembering that. “So I called up...shit, what was his name? You know, short guy? Weirdly buff? Ringin’ any bells here, gorgeous?”

Rhys felt his insides uncomfortably seize up at the mention of his best bro; Vaughn had been his best friend since high school and had been quick to open his home to Rhys when his life had gone to hell after the third time he’d had to run away from Vasquez’ unwanted advances.

Vaughn was a good person, he truly hoped that Jack didn’t do something to him. “His name is Vaughn.” Rhys snapped, becoming flippant and irritable in his anxiety. “...What did you tell him?”

“Hm? Oh, yeah. I told him you got hurt in my building and being the stand up guy that I am,” He paused, like he was building up some sort of tension in a great story. “That I was making sure that you were given the best care possible.”

“You call this care?” Rhys growled in response, “You kidnapped me! You locked me up in this room and…and kissed me,” he seethed in his frustration.

“What, you want me to kiss you again?”

“NO! Yes! I don’t fucking know I just-” Rhys wrung his hands together painfully tight, “I just want to know why you kidnapped me and what the fuck you want from me.”

“I already told you,” The older man fumed, just as angry as his younger counterpart now. “I’m going to teach you how to be a great killer.”

Rhys had never viewed himself as the type of person who got angry but this whole deal was becoming ridiculous and his fight or flight urges were practically forcing him to retailiate.

“AND I TOLD YOU I DON’T WANT THAT!” He screamed back feeling more and more like a petulant teenager with every word he uttered, “Just let me go!” he added, half heartedly

This conversation was going nowhere and fast and if he let it keep going Jack would be screaming too and he wasn’t the type that could handle his anger graciously.  
He might have ended up hurting Rhys, seriously hurting him, so he needed to get rid of this annoying stubborn streak Rhys had when it came to listening to him.

He grabbed the younger man by the waist and flipped him over so that Rhys was laying face down across his lap and Jack held him in place with an iron grip on the back of his neck.“What are you-” He started to ask, only to cut himself off with a yelping groan as the older mans hand connected with his ass. “AH!”

In the position he was, bent over the older mans’ lap like some naughty school girl in a bad porno, he suddenly realized just how vulnerable of a position he was in. Jack lifted the soft threadbare material of his sweater upwards off of Rhys’ ass, leaving it on display.

“You know, Rhysie...” Jack growled out meanly, “I’m getting real fucking tired of this little rebellious streak you got going here.” he added as his reared back and smacked Rhys again. “So we’re gonna remedy this,” and another smack. “Right,” and another, “Fuckin’” and another, “NOW!”

The sting of every hit had absolutely nothing on the humiliation he was feeling, it had him feeling like a child – small and powerless to whatever authoritative figure decided to punish him.

It was revolting and thrilling all at the same time and he did his best not to want it. “Please...” Rhys mewled out pathetically in the hopes that the other man might take pity on him and stop his assault on Rhys’ pride. “Ple-e-ease stop.”

“You gonna be a good boy?” Jack cooed in a sickeningly sweet tone as he continued his assault on the captive mans’ flank. “Cause I can keep this going all day, sweetness.”

 _‘Oh, I bet you fucking can’_ Rhys thought, with uninvited want.

“Yes! Yes, yes I’ll be good.” Rhys cried out, “Just please stop hitting me!” he added with an embarrassingly high pitched whine.

The hits stopped but Jack didn’t let him off of the degrading place face down on the other mans’ lap, instead Jack took to touching his bruised and battered flesh with deliberate gentleness. What was odd more than anything else about it was that he took comfort in the touches. It felt nice to his overstimulated brain.

He let out a mournful whimper when Jacks’ hand stopped its’ stupidly soothing caresses on his burning ass and put Rhys back in a more dignified position. “We’ll try this again, later Rhysie.” Jack hummed, before walking off and leaving Rhys alone again.

* * *

  
Jack came back a few hours later, to a newly re-dressed Rhys curled up in blankets fast asleep, biting on his thousand dollar blankets and lethargically rustling around. He smirked as he ran a hand through the younger mans’ hair and nudged his shoulder, trying to rouse him from his death-like sleep.

It took him a few minutes of insistent shaking and rousing for Rhys to sit up half-asleep,“Wha?” The younger man asked in between sleep-ridden groans, his voice hoarse from disuse and sleep. “Wha’s goin’ on?”

“We’re having dinner.” Jack remarked shortly, making it clear that it wasn’t a request. “You must be hungry and besides, I’ve got a few things to talk to you about.”

Rhys looked at him hazily, “Will you have something I can eat?” he asked the older man, looking at him with pleading eyes.

“Of course,” Jack replied incredulously, “I got my personal chef here to cook for us so you’ll get the star treatment.” he promised easily, “Plus I want to spend some time with my pretty new protege.”

“Not...pretty.” Rhys grumbled softly as he sat up, “’M not.”

Jack grinned fondly at his younger counter part, “Cute, then.” He commented for a second time as he helped his captive up to his feet with a strange unfounded sort of gentleness, “Come along, Rhysie.” he cooed, leading Rhys out the door and down winding hall ways.

Rhys sat down opposite the older man, where the plate that looked like it was meant for him was. He smiled sleepily, Jacks’ chef knew what to feed someone like him, an amazing feat considering how everyone thought; “I’m an incredibly lax, vegetarian. I just don’t eat meats.” meant to feed him a stale cube of tofu.

No one likes tofu, not even vegans, no matter how good they try to say it is.

Anyway, Rhys was practically in heaven at the sight of eggplant parmigiana and good coffee. “This is good,” he commented blandly, “I’m pleasantly surprised.”

“I’ll let Kroger know you liked it,” Jack replied easily.

Rhys mumbled something vaguely complimentary back and Jack beamed at him for it. “See, this is better.” He hummed appreciatively, “It’s way easier for all of us when you listen to me instead of acting all argumentative and rude.”

That woke Rhys up, with distaste sharpening his dull senses. “Well, you hit me.” He hissed in offense, rolling his eyes at the other man. “I’m not really to happy to be stuck here in this...situation, playing house with...with my kidnapper.” he ended the statement so quietly that it was barely more than a whisper.

Jack scoffed, “Open-handed across your goddamn _ass_.” he flippantly replied, “You know, most people are into that sort of thing.”

“Well I didn’t ask for that.”

“Could’ve fooled me.”

“God, you are such an asshole.” Rhys snapped, folding his arms over his chest. “Good thing I’m not Hyperion anymore. Working for you would be a nightmare.”

“Stubborn little…” Jack grumbled to himself, looking at Rhys like there was absolutely no reason that the auburn haired male should be upset. “You got a job, kitten?” Jack asked, seemingly out of nowhere.

“Yeah,” Rhys replied curtly, “I work at Pandora’s Box, it’s this weird little cafe/book store on main street.” he sighed out.

“Wouldn’t you want a job at Hyperion, Wallet head free?” Jack tried, “You know if you ever want to put that college degree to work.”

It was pretty clear why Jack wanted Rhys to work for Hyperion and that wasn’t something that he could bring himself to do, if he was being honest with himself. Pandora’s Box had to have been some kind of cover for illegal activities.

Fiona and Sasha were two con women and August was…well, August wasn’t the type of person to run a cafe and book store. Still, he definitely loved the place more than anywhere else he would ever work and he absolutely adored the three less than savory characters.

Plus, he figured that it would be a sanctuary out of Handsome Jacks’ influence and the way it was looking, it would be something that he would desperately need.

“No.” Rhys stated concisely, in a way that said that no matter what the older man spoke, pleaded or threatened he wouldn’t change his mind about. “Vasquez ruined working for Hyperion for me and even though he’s gone now…. I dunno,” he shrugged, “I like my job, you know. It pays alright, my hours are fairly flexible and my co-workers are fucking awesome.”

“You know, I usually don’t like it when someone so pretty has such a filthy mouth but with you...” Jack chuckled darkly, “With you it’s goddamn endearing.”

Rhys blushed despite himself, the situation was still so strange to him. “Hum, when can I go back to my real life?” he asked, a hopeful look in his eyes. “I got a life and a job...” he pouted, thinking of Gortys and Loader-bot. “and my pets.”

Jack looked thoughtful for a moment before answering, “I gotta make a few arrangements.”

Rhys gave the older man a curious glance, “Arrangements?”

“Yeah, you know. I gotta make sure I know everything about you,” Jack said, catching Rhys’ wrist and encasing it in his larger hand. “Or at least everything that matters.”

Rhys’ eyes narrowed, something intelligent and calculating brewing behind those hazel irises, “You’re going to have me watched.” he said, with little to no anger directed towards the other man.

“Exactly kiddo.” Jack chirped, pointing finger guns at him.

They ate in relative silence, polite conversation coming up every now and then as they finished their meals. Jack was, of course, the one to break the silence. “You still seem pretty broken up about what you did.” he noted, “You could talk to me about it, if you want? I’m pretty sure I’m one of the only people that would understand.”

Rhys blinked a few times, confusion becoming visible on his features. Jack had to stop pulling these complete one-eighties on him and going from horrid to nice in the matter of seconds.

In any case he was going to take him up on that offer. “Does it get...easier?” Jack looked at him quizzically so he continued on, “You know… I don’t feel bad for what I did to him but… I feel like I should, I think that murders’ wrong but I don’t… I can’t bring myself to feel remorse, fuck even regret for killing him.”

“You’ll get over it.” Jack assured easily, “That asshole deserved everything he got and you’ve got nothing to be ashamed of, wanting him dead.”

Rhys nodded mutely, “But I acted on it.” he argued, “I-I-I don’t do bad things like that! I’m a good person, I volunteer at soup kitchens and animal shelters! People like me don’t become killers.”

“You know those things aren’t mutually exclusive.” The older man hummed sophmorically, “You can be a generally good person that killed a few assholes who really deserve it.”

“They are?” Rhys replied shakily, wanting to believe it for the sake of his own sanity. “They are.”

“Yeah,” Jack agreed, “And it was necessary,” he added soothingly. “You know he wouldn’t have stopped.”

“Oh...okay.”

“Gotta say, I loved that whole...girl with the dragon tattoo thing you did to Vasquez!” he clapped his hands together theatrically, “It was fucking brilliant the way you incapacitated him with one of his own awards.”

“How did you-”

“Oh, I had security footage of the entirety of wallet-heads’ flat. You know,” the older man replied matter of factly, “other than the bathroom.”

Rhys sighed shakily, “Oh.” he said, “And you’ll use that if I tell.” he surmised on his own. He knew there was something Jack had other than his word but he hadn’t expected it to be so...evidentiary.

“But you won’t tell.” Jack hummed, “Isn’t that right, kitten?”

“No, Jack.” Rhys replied nervously, forgetting any of those warm and fuzzy feelings he had just a few minutes before. “I won’t tell.”

I can’t, he thought with a pout on his lips as he realized just what kind of prison this could be if he wasn’t smart about it.

Jack must have noticed something about the way Rhys’ face fell in sorrow, so he grabbed Rhys’ wrist as he asked if he was done eating and at Rhys’ nod he smiled and said, “Come with me, I got something to show you.”

Against his better judgment, the younger man let his curiosity get the best of him and followed Handsome Jack deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole.

* * *

  
Jacks’ hand never left his, it was a source of comfort he began to cling to with fervor as he was led into what seemed to be Jacks’ private study. He ordered the younger man to sit down after he pulled out a laptop and opened it. “Found this, among some other more gross things in Vasquez’ apartment.”

Jack decided not to torment the younger man with knowledge of stolen underwear and an obnoxious amount of photos’ of Rhys.

“What am I supposed to be looking at, Jack?” Rhys questioned, fidgeting and bouncing in place with his anxiety. “I-I don’t see anything.”

“That’s cause you’re not lookin’ in the right place, dum dum.” he tapped Rhys’ temple condescendingly as he finished his sentence. “Pull up the folder that’s labeled D-6-2016.”

Rhys did as he was bade, still unsure of the point of this whole thing. “Videos?” he asked, looking back at the other man in the room. “Why am I looking at video files?”

“Open one of ‘em up, Rhysie.” Jack ordered, low and growling in his ear. “Any of em should do.”

Rhys sighed, clicked on the one labeled ‘Good News’ and hoped that the build up was worth it.

 _Rhys paced around his and Vaughns’ apartment nervously, “I don’t know.” he said, crossing his arms and withdrawing further in on himself defensively as he continued pacing._  
_He had been wearing an over-sized Christmas sweater that his mother had sent him and a pair of knee high socks on his long legs but not much else._

_“What if he sees me? I...The restraining order is something I have to follow too and I haven’t had him prosecuted yet! If, if they think I’m not taking what he’s doing seriously then my whole case could be thrown out.” he babbled nervously, knowing that Vaughn and Yvette didn’t understand his fear. He wished they would get it, how he ran across the country only to be followed time and time again by his stalker._

_“Rhys, you don’t have to let Vasquez have all this control over you.” Yvette chimed in, ever the voice of reason, “You should be able to enjoy yourself with us, it’s bad enough that you can’t work at Hyperion anymore.” She frowned, “I mean that was like…your dream.”_

_Rhys smiled at that, “Actually August is thinking of selling me Pandora’s Box!” he gushed, for a moment forgetting how upset he had been just moments earlier. “I might just be a business owner in a few short years…” he frowned, “And that is exactly why I can’t let Hugo back into my radar and I can’t get back into his.”_

_“Well, you know we won’t leave your shadow the whole time, right Rhys?” Vaughn asked, “We want you to come because you’re our best friend.” the shorter man shrugged, “Mine, especially.”_

_Yvette gave Vaughn the dirtiest look she could muster and Vaughn replied flippantly with, “What? it’s true.” he added, “I’ve known Rhys since we were both in third grade.”_

_“Whatever.” She snapped, “Quality over quantity.”_

_“I got both.” Vaughn replied cheekily, before turning back to the tall, overtly flustered male. “But for real Rhys, we both love you. We just want you to be able to go out with us for a stupid, corporate party and like Yvette said, we’ll be shadowing you the whole time.”_

_“Yeah and you know if anything shady happened that Vaughn could bench press Assquez with his pinky.” Yvette piped up, nodding happily. “Please?”_

_Rhys sighed in defeat, this whole conversation was going nowhere. His two friends weren’t the type to just give up on an idea once they got it in their opportunistic heads and Rhys absolutely hated disappointing the people he was close too._

_“Okay, I’ll go.” Rhys’ smile was tight as he walked into another room, terror still obvious in his posture but it was clear he had no willingness to disappoint his best friends._

Rhys looked in disgust at the file as the video ended, “He...” Rhys swallowed, “Oh my god, he managed to get a security feed in my apartment?!”

The video in question had been pretty innocuous but his rage and disgust had more to do with the fact that Vasquez had managed to get into his apartment once again, only this time nobody had noticed it as it happened right under their noses.  
For all he knew, Vasquez had some feed into his bedroom and was watching him when he brought people over.  
Jack nodded, enjoying the bit of rage setting Rhys’ features as he stoked it in the right direction. “Still think there would have been any other way out?”

“No.” Rhys answered honestly.

“You still feeling bad about it, cupcake?” Jack asked him, knowing the answer before Rhys could even open his mouth again.

“No, I’m not feeling guilty anymore.” Rhys answered, “If I do this, you know...kill someone.” he added for posterity, “It’s gonna have to be some asshole that deserves it. I mean, we’re talking complete and utter scumbag here.”

Jack smirked, something wolf-like and predatory in his eyes, “Oh, Rhysie. You should know by now that I wouldn’t have it any other way.”


	3. We're A Package Deal, Baby!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's a crap load of smut in this, also Fiona, Rhys and Sasha are siblings because its my fic and i do what i want.

Rhys sat across from Jack, the older man not really paying attention to him as he knew well that Rhys wasn’t going to run off – he couldn’t, Jacks estate was so far secluded that even if Rhys tried to get away he wouldn’t have gotten past the garden.

So he just dealt with the cards that he was dealt and curled up with a book while the older man grumbled over lines of code, his hand occasionally dipping into a bag of stale looking pretzels that he was munching on.

“Jack?” Rhys queried after a while of suffocating silence, his voice quiet enough that he almost thought that the older man couldn’t have heard him.

“What do you need, baby?”

Rhys blushed, putting his hand up to his cheek in a nervous display. He hates that, because it’s not as if he’s some blushing virgin or anything like that – he’s experienced enough that some mildly flattering pet name shouldn’t be having him red as a tomato.

“I um, when can I go home?” he asked softly, “I know you told me something vague about it...like ballpark figure?”

Rhys was worriedly thinking of whatever form, ‘Arrangements’ might come in and he truly hope it was less murder filled than he might have thought it would end up being.

“Ball park figure?” Jack murmured to himself, “Nothin’ like that, sweet thing.” he answered, “No, what I want from you is to help me do something.”

“Oh.” The younger man hummed affirmatively, “What would you have me do?”

Jack looked at Rhys liked he just asked what number came after two, “I’m gonna kill someone, baby.” He answered easily, talking down to Rhys like he was a small and petulant child. “and you? You’re gonna be a good little boy and help me.”

“Why?” He asked, refusing to look at the other man. “Y-you don’t need me...”

He just wanted to go home and never have to look at Handsome Jacks’ face ever again, cuddle up in his blankets and never have to think about murder or dead stalkers or upsettingly attractive men that kidnap him and want to kill with him.

Jack snorted and made a point of getting up, walking across the room to where the auburn haired man was seated. He leaned down and took Rhys’ chin between two of his fingers and forced Rhys to look at him, “It’s not so much about need as want.” he answered, “You’re special babe.”

Rhys furrowed his brows, “I’m nothing special.” he protested quietly, “Why do you keep saying that? I’m not special.”

Jacks’ hand didn’t leave his face, seemingly enjoying the blushing protest that Rhys put up and the way that the younger man looked at anything and everything but Jacks’ face.

“Oh, but you are.” he condescended, “My special boy,” he added, “Perfect little killer.”

Jack kisses him again and Rhys knows that he shouldn’t lean into it so much, shouldn’t catch the others’ lips and return the affection in such a desperate and needy way – he should be revolted, disgusted by Jack.

He’s not, though and instead he finds himself desperately attracted to the older man takes advantage of it at every opportunity to do so.

“Aren’t you going to do more to me?” he asked, desperate and out of breath, when Jack pulled back from the possessive kiss. “Why do you keep teasing me like this?”

There’s surprise in the older mans’ face but he quickly recovers and trains his face into a mask of amusement and pleasure but he doesn’t say anything to Rhys yet, just lets the younger man just stew in his anxiety and worry.

“I – I, I mean well...you just, you keep kissing me and I… I thought you would want…” Rhys frowned, looking broken and defeated. “But you don’t...” he turned away from the other man, feeling like a cornered animal, “I’m sorry.” he tried, “I’m really sorry, I don’t know why I said that.”

“You’re cute, kitten.” Jack murmured not unkindly, boxing Rhys in closer than before. “and here I was trying to be gentlemanly to you.” he added, moving over the younger man in a predatory manner as he coaxed Rhys’ thighs apart. “To think I was gonna wine and dine your hot little ass first,” Jack gave Rhys’ hip a squeeze rough enough to leave a mark as he continued mocking him, “but that’s not what you want is it, babe?”

The younger man shook his head and whined sweetly, begging in a way that suggested that he had no idea what he was even supposed to ask of Jack.

“You wanna be Handsome Jacks’ pretty little slut, Rhysie?” he goads, “You want me to hold you down and make you take whatever I decide to give you. That’s how it is for you, baby?”

Rhys is unsure if it was the pet names, the casual degradation or just the very aura of Jack but he was already spreading his legs for the other man, moaning and rutting against Jacks’ thigh like a bitch in heat.

“Desperate little thing.” Jack coos to him, slotting his knee against the other mans’ groin and rubbing against Rhys’ clothed erection with it. “You be a good little killer for me and I’ll give you all the cock that you could ever ask for.”

“I don’t think that that’s a realistic thing to promise.” Rhys groaned out, a breathy giggle on his lips as he grabbed onto Jacks’ shoulders.

Jack chuckles, leaned back from the younger man and grabbed at the flimsy material of Rhys’ shorts, pulling them down to reveal an even flimsier pair of yellow and blue striped panties that, funnily enough, match the fabric of his socks perfectly.

“Did you plan on getting fucked tonight, baby boy?” Jack teases, tracing his fingers around the yellow striped pattern of the panties.

“N-no,” Rhys mumbled, hiding his face behind his hands in shame. “I didn’t think this would happen, Jack.”

“Just that kinky, huh.” Jack murmurs in a pleased manner as he drags the panties down and lets the flimsy fabric and poised himself over the younger man. “Gonna have so much fun with you.”

“You’re still dressed.” The auburn haired male responded in a despairing tone, “Why are you still dressed.” Rhys tried to tug at the fabric of Jacks’, coarse costs-more-money-than-you’ll-ever-see-in-your-life pants and the older man growled. He grabbed at Rhys’ wrist and put them up above his head in a swift manner.

Rhys let out a confused noise and Jack responded to him with a completely condescending declaration of, “Uh-pa-pa no touching kitten.”

The younger man pouted at that but kept his wrists where they were, figuring that placating with this one simple thing would be easier on him than the consequences of disobeying this handsome, dangerous man.

“That’s a good boy,” Jack praised genially, crudely gripping the length of Rhys’ cock and coaxed it into hardness. “Are you gonna keep being a good boy for me, Rhysie?”

Rhys’ eyes widened slightly, understanding what Jack wanted from him immediately.

“I’ll be good,” he assented back as he tried with all his might to meet Jacks’ touches, “I’ll be a good boy for you, Jack.”

“Then take off your shirt but, ah.” Jack grinned at him almost evilly, “Keep those dorky socks on.”

Rhys flushed in his embarrassment but did as he was told, unbuttoning his shirt as quickly as he could manage without just tearing it off and sliding it down his shoulders.

“Cute.” Jack murmured as he traced the expanse of Rhys’ tattoos with his thumb. “How long did you have to sit and wait for these?”

Rhys whined out unintentionally, “L-long enough.” he let out, barely coherent already. He had spent thousands of dollars on his ink, part of a signing bonus with Hyperion when they had scooped him up after college.

As stupid as it probably sounded, they were sentimental to him. The one part of the gilded life that he was meant to have that Vasquez couldn’t have possibly taken from him.

He was cut from his own thoughts as Jack pushed Rhys back down, pinned the younger mans hands above his head with a silent command to keep him there as he hoisted Rhys’ legs up and onto his shoulders.

“This is pretty vanilla.” Rhys quipped, “Don’t you have some kind of weird sex dungeon we could move this to?”

“This is pretty out of the blue.” Jack retorted, “Believe me babe,” he added, sliding a hand down his thigh in a seemingly gentle manner – it reminded him more of the way that crocodiles cry to evoke sympathy from their prospective victims than the act of a gentle lover. “Give me some prep time and I’ll suspend you from the ceiling and fuck you so hard that you won’t be able to move for hours.”

“Oh, that’s...” Rhys trailed off, not wanting to say the word ‘nice’ but he couldn’t find another way to put it. “...Nice?”

“I’m not that kind of asshole.” Jack muttered before ultimately going back to what he was doing – ravishing him, he reminded himself.

Jack had big hands, he thought stupidly as the aforementioned man prodded two fingers against his hole. Still not stretching him yet just...feeling around the sensitive skin of the rim and getting it wet and sloppy with lube.

“One day I’ll eat you out for hours, Rhysie.” Jack commented in a matter-of-fact tone, “I’ll make you cum so many times that you go fucking insane.”

Only after he felt like he had degraded Rhys just the right amount did Jack slide one of his fingers into Rhys’ hole. He moved quickly, fluidly and with just the right amount of roughness to let Rhys know that he knew exactly what he was doing as he worked the younger mans’ hole open.

Every movement with his fingers seemed to just avoid Rhys’ prostate, denying him in the worst of ways and teasing him more than Rhys’ scrambled brain thought was fair or just.

This was just cruel and unusual and Jack – that bastard – knew exactly how evil he was being.

“You ready, cupcake?” Jack murmured, like he was asking for a final admission of consent. A stupid thing to want, really, because in his current frame of mind he could have asked if Rhys wanted to go jump off the empire state building and he would have nodded stupidly like he did right then all the same.

Jack was inside him then and it felt so good to him that if the world ended right then, Rhys would have been perfectly fine with it. He focused less and less on the prospect of killing someone and more and more on listening to the man on top of him because Jack made him feel good and safe.

He was literally being fucked stupid and couldn’t bring himself to give a damn about any of the consequences.

At some point in their timed thrusts, the older man moved closer and Jacks’ forehead pressed against his own as he moved with Rhys and he closed his eyes in response to the closeness. It was a little bit nicer this way, he could feel every single motion in a way that was a hundred times more intense than if he was looking at Jack.

Jacks’ rough hands moving and bruising up his thighs, beads of sweat rolling down his neck, the feeling of skin slapping and…silicone?

He opened his eyes and blinked in confusion as he realized that this was the first time he really noticed the clips attached to Jacks face, the slight discoloration from where the mask started and ended was more stark now that he was so close to the other mans’ face. It was admittedly a little jarring up close, he thought and his curiosity quickly got the best of him.

“You wear a mask?” Rhys asked, suddenly feeling very stupid about not noticing it until the other mans’ cock was buried to the hilt inside of him.

“Yeah, stupid. I gotta mask to cover my real face.” Jack grunted in reply, “How the hell did you not notice that?”

“I guess I wasn’t really looking at you like that,” Rhys mumbled in between moaning gasps, “N-now I, Ah, see it it’s – oh!” Rhys babbled, his head hit the wall hard as Jack thrust into him with particular brutality, “i-int-er-es-ting… I like it. I like it a lot.”

Jack snorted, “You won’t like it so much when I’m not fucking you stupid, babe.” he muttered in a barely audible tone.

He had a feeling that if Rhys saw exactly what was under that ten thousand dollar mask that he wore, then he wouldn’t be so interested in him – no, he was pretty sure that the leggy man would be running for the hills in terror at what he saw.

Jack wouldn’t blame him, either.

Still, he keeps up with his rough thrusting – he wants Rhys’ hole raw and abused, Jacks’ working to get it to a pretty red color, he plans to have Rhys sore and limping for days.

Jack groaned, imagining the embarrassment that the younger man would have trying to explain it away when he was out with him later was getting him there quicker than he wanted to, so he pulled back and slowed his pace almost to a stop.

“D-don’t...stop please.” Rhys urged, trying to bounce his hips on the older mans cock and get some movement. “Please keep going.”

Jack grins meanly, “Ask me nicely, babe.”

He really liked the desperation on Rhys’ pretty face, it was a good look for him and Jack wished to milk it for all that he could get from the younger man.

“Agh! Come on, just fuck me!” Rhys whined petulantly, “Just give it to me!”

Turns out, he liked mouthy too.

The serial killers’ hand came down hard on Rhys’ ass, “Ah, ah kitten.” he scolded in an overly sweet tone, “I said nice and if you feel like keeping up this bratty attitude then I’ll leave you right where you are.”

Rhys whined softly at that, “No,” he mumbled apologetically, “’m sorry, ‘m sorry please keep goin’”

“You sure?” Jack teases, hoping to drive the younger man to complete insanity and desperation, “That sounded goddamn rude to me.”

“Nnh, please. I mean it, really please.” Rhys persistently tried again, “I need it, please.”

Rhys begged of him pathetically and that was all that Jack really wanted in the first place but he still held firm on the younger mans’ lithe hips. “Hm,” He murmured cruelly, pretending to think about the prospect of fucking the younger man. “Yeah, I think I’ll give you a little somethin’” he crooned.

Jack pulled out of Rhys completely before slamming back into the younger man hard and meanly thrusting into Rhys’ ass and reveling in the moans that his partner let out – right on the edge of pain but definitely full of pleasure.

It was a lot of cursing, crying out and sounds of skin slapping before Rhys broke the silence, “Jack I’m-!” he gasped, interrupting himself as he came with ropes of cum splattering over his own stomach. Jack thrust shallowly into the younger man a few more times before he came himself.

“That all you thought it might be, kiddo?” He asked cheekily as he took a moment to enjoy the absolutely wrecked expression on Rhys’ face as his cum leaked out of the slimmer mans’ ass.

Rhys was practically looking at Jack like he was god and the serial killer ate it up like candy.

“You want me to take care of you, Rhysie?” Jack questioned him gently and Rhys gave him a thoroughly content smile and a nod as Jack scoops him up like he’s the worlds lankiest princess and he’s gentle about getting him at least somewhat cleaned up – he prides himself on giving amazing aftercare and he’s not fucking around with caring for the partners that he has – without causing the younger man any sort of pain.

Jacks’ fingers dip into the younger mans’ abused hole gently as he pushed gently on Rhys’ tummy to get any extra cum out of him. He smiled at the way that Rhys fidgeted and clenched down on the clinical fingers, “You just love being full, don’tcha?”

The auburn haired male looked away, a little red in the face. “eat shit.” he spat halfheartedly at Jack.

“If this is how you’re askin’ me to eat you out,” Jack retorted with complete seriousness, “then I’d work on my manners if I were you, babe.”

“That’s not what I’m…” Rhys trailed off, feeling a little embarrassed and ashamed of his own innate desperation and plain stupidity. “Whatever.” he finished his statement lamely.

He’s too tired to really think and the way that Jack is looking at him has a few of his nerves right on edge and all the other ones sleepy and content as all hell. He’s not a big fan of the ambivalence he was feeling whenever Jack was in his radar.

“You really are super cute,” Jack commented genially, “You were a good boy, Rhysie.” he hums affectionately, stroking his thumb down the younger mans’ face. He gently eased his thumb into the younger mans’ mouth and Rhys sucked on the appendage, completely unaware of what he was really doing – all he could really tell was that it was comfortable and he felt good sucking on Jacks’ thumb.

Now, if he were a little more lucid he would probably be booking a triple session with his therapist.

“What happens now?” Rhys mumbling came out slightly gargled by Jacks’ thumb in his mouth but he understood it nonetheless.

“Inquisitive little fuck, aren’t ya?” Jack grumbled before answering, “Now...I’m gonna let you take a little nap.” he added, running a gentling hand down Rhys’ bare back – it was so nice and soothing, especially after the rough treatment that he had endured, that the auburn haired man couldn’t help but sigh at the contact.

“Am I still gonna kill someone today?” Rhys asked, “That’s what you want, still. Right?”

He’s a little bit excited, despite his own reservations about murder. Because, the power and control he would get from killing. Holding another persons’ life in his hand was starting to seem more and more like something that he very much wanted to do over and over again.

“Yeah,” The older man assents, “That’s exactly what I want.” he answers and leans down to press a gentle kiss onto the younger mans’ forehead, “Go to sleep, baby.”

Rhys does as he’s told after that, curls even further in on himself – taking only a tiny portion of Jacks’ expansive bed, much to the older mans’ amusement – and lets himself fall into a deep, dead sleep.

Jack cards his hand through Rhys’ newly mussed auburn locks and smirks, “You’re a good boy, Rhysie.” he mumbles fondly before he gets up to prepare for their hunt.

* * *

 

Rhys had more questions than answers from Jack such as, “Where the hell are we going?”, “Is this a park?”, “Are we gonna kill someone in a park?”, so on and so forth.

Still, when Jack gave him his hand Rhys took it and walked on to the green grass of the park and seated the both of them on a fairly inconspicuous bench.

Jack put his arm on Rhys’ shoulder in a possessive manner, leaning in covertly on him, “See that shit stain over there?” Jack murmured to the slimmer man, pointing Rhys’ face towards a man lurking around the park in a suspicious manner. “That’s our mark, pumpkin. He’s exactly the kind of scum bag we were talking about.”

Rhys was curious about the man, he didn’t look like much to him. “How scummy are we talking?” he asked, “He looks like a substitute teacher.”

“His names Clint Richards,” Jack answered easily, “He’s an asshole, like the wife beating and child touching kind of asshole.”

“Oh.” Rhys mumbled in a dumbfounded manner, “Well...okay, that’s.. that’s fair.”

“Now, I want you to sweet talk him in to a dark, dirty alley so we can incapacitate him,” Jack instructed in an almost gentle tone. The way the older man spoke really soothed Rhys’ jumbling nerves. “Go over there and make me proud, Rhysie.”

“I...how do I do that?” Rhys asked of the older man, needy and unsure of what he should do.

He’s never really been the type to demand the spot light before and playing the role of honey-trap sounds awfully like something that’s gonna garner him a lot of unwanted attention from unsavory and pathetic types like the man they were currently hunting.

Jack snorted, “Just flirt a little with him, babe.” he answered easily, his thumb stroking circles on the bare skin of Rhys’ upper thigh. “You’re good at that sort of thing.”

Rhys frowned, “And if that doesn’t work?” Rhys asked, crossing his arms and edging away from the  
older man in his offense, “He might not want to talk to me.”

“Just play up that Lolita routine you do so well,” The older man assured of him, taking a moment to kiss Rhys’ cheek one more time before he sent him on his way with a sharper than necessary slap on his ass.

It was only then that Rhys noticed that not only were they in a town that Rhys had never even seen but the park they were in was strangely empty for a Two PM on a Saturday. “Weird.” he mumbled to himself as he walked over to the prospective dead man walking.

He noticed the man that the man had some book in his lap and he made a mental note to divine whatever it was before he spoke to him.

“Hey,” he said, awkwardly waving to the other man as he sat down next to him. “Is that Vonnegut?” he asked curiously.

The man ignored him, which Rhys found terribly annoying, so he stepped up his game and sure enough Clint Richards’ face went from casual disinterest to a definite sort of eagerness in no time flat as Rhys spoke to him with a casual hand on the other mans’ leg, a flirtatious half-smile besetting his features and a look of promise in his eyes.

“So, how much do you charge?” The man asked in a brazen manner and Rhys’ eyes widened as he realized exactly why this place was empty save for a few people when it should have been crowded with people, ‘of course this is one of those weird sex parks. Ew.’ he thought, feeling slimy and unclean all over.

Thankfully, he recovered quick enough to drop his eyes in a sultry manner, “Walk with me a little, I know a shortcut.” Rhys bade, and the man was quick to bob his head as Rhys dipped around a corner.

And he did follow, with a stride not unlike a puppy and as Rhys dipped into the slimy enclosure he couldn’t help but think about what an idiot this man was to just follow him down somewhere where he could easily be murdered.

Would be, really, now that he thought about it.

Once they were in the dark and out of the way spot, Clint started touching him and Rhys put up with it as best as he could, “I’m gonna need to see the money first.” he stated, just to stall the slimy man away from him until Jack decided to come and incapacitate him for Rhys.

“Oh. Right, right.” Clint answered, looking somewhat stupid as he reached in his back pocket for his wallet.

Seemingly out of nowhere, Jack came up behind the portly man with a large rock in his hand and crashed it down on the other mans’ skull.

Their victim was quick to slump over, being held up only by the two killers making sure he looked like he was walking, “I moved the car around.” Jack murmured simply, “Next time we’ll just take him back to my home first, it’ll be easier that way.”

“You want me to whore myself out to the people that we’ll be killing?” Rhys questioned in an angry, disbelieving whisper and Jack started laughing, “Who said anything about sleeping with them? I didn’t that’s for sure.” he bit back at the younger man.

Rhys pouted as he helped load the man into the trunk, both of them managing not to be noticed by sheer luck or – and more likely at that – the general apathy that people held in their day to day lives.

“We’re taking him back to your home?” Rhys questioned after he jumped into the front seat. “Do you have some kind of crazy murder house get-rid-of-a-body smart house technology there that I didn’t notice?”

“Something like that,” Jack murmured affirmatively, “speaking of, I got you a present.” he added, handing the cloth covered object to Rhys with a smile. “I think you’ll love it, cupcake.”

Rhys looked at him quizzically before taking the item gingerly in his hands, “A present?” he asked with incredulity as he unwrapped it to reveal a knife.

The knife was goddamn pretty, stainless serrated steel blade and a comfortable leather grip with intricate woven patterns on the handle. Rhys couldn’t help but open his mouth at how nice it looked and he looked over at the older man, “This..for me?” he asked stupidly.

“Course,” Jack assented, “I want you, to use it on him.” he gently coaxed, “Go quick or slow or how the fuck ever. I just want to watch you work tonight and if you need a little help I’ll be there to show you what real torture looks like.”

Surprisingly enough, the words don’t come off to Rhys like a threat. No, instead what they sound like to the younger man was a patient promise of future teachings.

It was...weirdly comforting for Jack to say that to him.

* * *

 

Clint Richards woke up, naked and bound to what felt like a medical stretcher with tape over his eyes and thick, obtrusive gag stuffed down his throat.

He screamed for help nevertheless, shrill and terrified, like if he shrieked at a higher decibel

“God, you don’t know when to quit, huh?” Jack snapped at their victim, “Ah! I’m being held captive and about to be killed!” he mocked, “You really think screamings’ gonna get you out of this mess, pumpkin?”

Clint Richards only screamed more at Jacks’ mockery and Rhys snorted, “Would it be a problem to let him scream it out?” he asked Jack, “I mean we’re like...hours away from the nearest township.”

“Good point, kiddo.” Jack answered, “I usually like to let them stew for a bit...really lets the terror set in. Gets ‘em all sad and hopeless.”

Jack practically ripped the tape from the other mans’ eyes and tore out the mouth guard with less care than he would allow garbage.

Clint looked at the two men and set his sights on the one that he had just been speaking with before he got knocked out, “Hey, you’re that kid!” he practically squealed, looking at Rhys with pathetic, pleading eyes. “Y-you gotta get me outta here, kid. Please, I gotta wife and a kid and a-”

“Oh, I wouldn’t be pleading with him shit stain.” Jack remarked, looking at the man with more disgust than he had had in at least a few weeks. “See, Rhysie here’s a nice guy but fuck – he just hates it knowing that there’s disgusting, smarmy losers like you trolling parks for underage tail while you got a dying wife in the hospital.” He shook his head theatrically, “Drives him abso-fucking-lutely insane.”

Internally Rhys was glad that Jack hadn’t told him exactly what this man had been doing, because he might have been angry enough that he actually would have just killed him at the park and went to prison for the rest of his life – for real that time.

Externally Rhys was looking at Jack with a disgusted expression directed completely and utterly at their victim, “Really? Got, what a fucking scum bag.” he stepped away from Clint, absolutely revolted by the man.

“Right?” Jack answered, “I told ya, kitten.”

“You?” Clint shrieked, “What the hell is wrong with you?! I thought that you were just a whore.”

“Surprise, surprise.” Rhys mumbled mockingly, finding him more than a little distasteful now that their victim was awake. “You probably shouldn’t have ran off to the nearest dark corner before you learned my name.” he sneered as he fiddled with his new knife.

Rhys looked down and noticed what looked like saran wrap spread over the floor and walls, he looked at Jack who grinned in a macabre way and supplied, “You love getting messy, sugar. Which you know,” Jack said, “Is fine...more than fine. Fucking ho abut I usually prefer to wrap my hands around someone throat and just...” he pantomimed strangling someone, “aaaghh, you know? Of course you do, pumpkin. You know exactly what I’m talking about. What were we talkin’ about?”

“The plastic, saran wrap...tarp thingy?”

“Oh, yeah. I’m not a big fan of getting on my knees and scrubbing blood out of my nice ass floors and you…don’t look like you’ve ever washed a dish in your life.”

Rhys pouted for a minute before he acquiesced, “Sure.” he said, as he held the knife in his shaking hand. He put on a good face and walked over to the man that he was about to kill, “I would say something like… I’m sorry, or I have to do this or… I dunno, it’s me or you but...eh.” he said, right before jamming his knife into Clint Richards’ shoulder with a thrilled sigh.

“Oh, yeah.” Jack praised him, “Keep goin’ Rhysie. Just like that, fucking destroy him like the serial killer you’re gonna be.”

Rhys frowned and turned back to the other man, “Are you getting off on this?”

“Metaphorically.” Jack replied, amused as all hell with Rhys’ mouthiness.

“You know you...” before Rhys could say anything more impulsive and mouthy to the other killer, he just went back to slicing at their victims flesh, slicing into bone and muscle purely on adrenaline and thrill alone.

If he said he wasn’t having any fun...well, he’d be a liar.

He paused, noticing how heavy he

“Havin’ fun, babe?” Jack murmured in Rhys ear, watching the way that the younger mans’ chest heaved a bit, “a little bit overwhelmed, maybe? Need a little help, cupcake?”

“M-maybe.” he admitted softly, feeling weightier in his arms now that the adrenaline rush had diminished and he was back to reality. “Could you...”

“I’m on it.” Jack agreed, gently coaxing the blade out of Rhys’ slippery palm and taking it in hand. He didn’t need to do much, really. One more thrust in Clint Richards’ throat and the man had a few spasms before he finally croaked.

They did the universe a favor after all. Because this guy was scummier than scum, Rhys rationalized to himself because he didn’t feel bad for killing a man – he knew that he should, that he should be horrified but all he really thought was that he was tired and kinda wanted a lie down after all of this exercise.

Jack took one look at Rhys’ blood covered neck and sighed in pleasure at the sight of the pretty, leggy man looking so brutal again.

“Beautiful.” Jack hummed in a pleased manner, pulling the younger man to him and kissing along Rhys’ bloodied collar bones. He liked the coppery taste on Rhys’ skin and the sweet way that his counter part gasped for him. “My cute little killer.” he complimented.

Rhys giggled nervously at that, worried about how he didn’t hate the contact that Jack distributed upon him, “What are we gonna do about him?” he asked, looking pointedly over at the middle aged man that they had all but brutalized.

“You want to know how to get rid of a body?” Jack asked mockingly, “Already? Wow, looks like we got a quick study here kiddo.”

“Well... I’m curious?” Rhys inflected with a questioning tone, not really a good thing if you’re trying to stick up for yourself.

“Don’t worry about it right now, kitten.” Jack murmured, “I’m good at this shit and I need a little bit of time, now. This whole crap shoots a process.”

“Bu-” Rhys was cut off by the older man leaning forward and kissing at the corner of his mouth and he found himself smiling and leaning into the contact.

“Go wash up, babe.” Jack ordered him, gently sussing the younger man towards his master bathroom with a wolfish grin he added, “Got you some nice, new clothes too. Another present for ya.”

Rhys strode up to where Jack had directed him to, where he peeled off his bloodily destroyed clothing and rooted around for a place to put them for a few minutes before finding a box of trash bags under the sink, “Good,” he hummed to himself, “Alright. I’m okay, just killed my second person and…” he blinked in confusion with himself. “it did get a lot easier.” he realized out loud, wide eyed and astounded with himself.

Rhys sunk down into the porcelain tub, letting the water wash in while he lay against the cool surface, he loved this, this was the most calming time he had had in a long while because he really loved baths, he dealt with a lot of stress on a day-to-day basis and there was nothing better for it than to curl up in steaming hot water with some fancy soaps and unwind.

“Looks like you made yourself comfortable.” Jack hummed, breaking Rhys out of his train of day dreaming thoughts. He looked up to see Jack leering at Rhys’ newly nude form in the tub, the water a soft pink along with the inane amount of bubbles.

“Hi handsome.” Rhys hummed flirtatiously, giving him a halfhearted wave and a coy smile, “How’s the dead guy?”

“In the bowels of a pig.” Jack answered graciously, “You know they taste better after they eat a person? Who’d have thought, right?”

Rhys made a face but didn’t comment on it, “Oh.” he mumbled in his distaste. “You use pigs to get rid of the body.”

“They can eat bone.” Jack gushed, “And I got farm land so I figure… why not use it?”

“Oh.” Rhys said again, unsure of what he should say to the other man.

“What?” Jack snorted derisively, “I bet those pigs are already fucking delicious. I mean, I’m not gonna kill ‘em because they’re expensive as fuck and basically my murder accomplices.” he had a fond look on his face, even with as derogatorily as he spoke of them. “You should go say hi to the fat assholes later, they’ll probably like you a lot,” he added, looking a little more fond, “you bleeding heart nerd.”

“I will.” Rhys promised with a cheeky grin on his face, “I love farm animals.”

Jack put his gun down on the outside rim of the tub and Rhys looked at the dangerous piece with casual interest as Jack stood, looking down at the younger man in a leering manner. “I would still love to have you as my PA.” He offered, “You’re so...” he paused, looking for the perfect word to use before deciding on, “Efficient.” he said it with a cocky wolf-like grin, “You’d be the perfect addition to the Hyperion family.”

“I like my life.” Rhys mumbled, not really liking the way that Jack seemed to be trying to manipulate him into leaving the niceties that he still had. “I like my run down apartment and my job at a coffee shop.”

Jack snorted in a derisive and superior manner, “Fine, kid.” he huffed, “If you wanna be boring as fuck and keep it up with your mundane life then that’s okay. I won’t take it personally.”

Rhys didn’t know if he actually believed the other man but he nodded jerkily at the exchange anyway, looking at Jack curiously, “Don’t you want to join me?” he coaxed of the other man as he looked at Jack flirtatiously, “I’m kinda lonely in here.” he crooned in what he hoped was a coy tone.

His fingers made circular motions around the tub, “Sounds like fun, babe.” Jack murmured darkly with promise in his eyes.

* * *

Rhys is more than delighted to be back once Jack decides to take him home, not before he tells Rhys in no uncertain terms that if he decided to grow a conscience that he may as well be signing his own death sentence and let him know that, “Arrangements” for Rhys would be there in a few days time when the auburn haired man went to work.

He sighed, unlocking the door to his apartment and frowning at the mess. “Goddammit, Fiona.” he grumbled to himself, knowing that he probably wouldn’t bother to confront her on it. He had grown up in a two bedroom apartment with Fiona and Sasha, he knew the risks that came with letting her stay at his admittedly zealously cleaned apartment.

Still, it was kinda annoying. “Leaving my place a goddamn disaster.” he added in a haze, “you suck.”

Before he could really think, he was tackled by Loader-bot, with Gortys in tow. “Hey guys!” he chirped to his animals, “Oh my god, I missed you so much.” he babble while petting down L.B’s back gently, “Fiona made sure to let you out, right boy?” he asked of the mastiff and looked over at Gortys, who mewed at him curiously, “Did she clean out your litter box? What am I saying, of course she didn’t.”

He was pretty content to lay back on the floor, with Loader insistently licking at his face and Gortys standing on one of his arms, her paws were sure to leave little bruises on his arms but he needed to get his home picked up so he gently pushed himself up, “Okay guys,” he coaxed the animals gently, “I gotta clean this place up and get us all fed.”

At the mention of food, both the dog and cat practically bounded towards the kitchen and he had to chuckle. “Oh, you guys are my best friends.” he hummed to himself, “Animals are so much better than people.”

After looking around the destroyed space of his apartment he just murmured, “Fuck it,” to himself and made a mental note to call a maid service and make an appointment for them to clear this goddamn disaster area – and send the bill to Fiona because Jesus this was disgusting.

He trotted over to his kitchenette and got both Gortys and Loader bowls filled to the brim with the fancy organic food that cost him more than what he spent to feed himself and set it down for the dog and cat, “Here ya go, guys.” he hummed to the both of them, “I’ll probably get some treats later, I dunno depends on if you guys destroyed anything or not.”

Rhys made a point of clearing away the filth from his chair and sat down with a bowl of ice cream, waiting patiently for his blankets to be nice and warm so he could sleep after this exhausting week. Gortys ran up and curled in his lap as he put on some garbage straight to Netflix movie and leaned back.

About halfway through the film, his phone started to ring. He sighed, not wanting to deal with any more people for at least two days, so he let it ring for a few minutes before he bothered to pick up his cell, noticing the name “Fi! (ง •̀_•́)ง” lit up bright on display. He smiled and accepted the call, “Oh! Hi, what’s up?” he answered in an overtly chipper tone.

“Heard you got hurt.” Fiona answered in her best ‘I am your older sister and I am disappointed in you’ tone – even though, in reality she had about three minutes on him. “I tried calling you, by the way.” she added in an equally passive aggressive manner.

“Oh? Oh yeah, I fell down the stairs!” he answered, a hysterical giggle bubbling out of him, “Got to meet Handsome friggin’ Jack though, so that’s cool. Right?”

“Depends on your definition of ‘cool’.” Fiona snapped, “We lost some business because all the creeps that seem to crush on you weren’t there. Because you weren’t there.”

“Well.” He bit back, feeling a little bit dressed down by her. She always did that to him and it drove him absolutely crazy. “I think it’s cool.”

“Re-lax.” She dismissed before her tone got slightly more serious, “But you’re not badly injured right?”

“I’m fine.”

“Then how the hell did you get in one of Handsome Jacks’ buildings?” She asked, in a way that sounded familiar to him. A way that told him she was suspect of every single one of his life choices and had no problem with chewing him out for the rest of his life, depending on the severity of the stupidity of his decisions.

“Well...” he trailed off, not wanting to let her know how stupid and impulsive he was. “I...maybe...might have...tried to, y-you know, confront Vasquez?”

“Right.” Fiona sounded exasperated, “Let your stalker be in the same room as you. That’s the most intelligent thing I’ve heard all day Rhys.”

“Well, I didn’t see him anyway.” he snapped a little, “I almost died on the stair well before I got the chance.”

“And Mr. Hyperion just scooped you up like an accident prone princess and saved the day for you.” he swore that he could practically hear Fiona grinning as she got ready to give him hell like she always did, “...Did you sleep with him?”

“Shut up.”

“And I’ll take that as a yes.” Fiona laughed audibly and if he didn’t know her well enough that he knew the kind of icy hell he would be in, he would have hung up before she got a little more in depth with her teasing. “You’re so easy! It’s like when we were living with Felix and you would always bring home these strangers.”

“They weren’t strangers!”

“You practically gave him a heart attack.”

“I did not!”

“mm-hmm,” She retorted, “You should just cop to it, me and Sash wouldn’t give you so much shit if you actually owned up to it for once.”

“Okay, okay.” He surrendered, finally. “I get it, I’m the slutty sibling. Ha, ha let’s make fun of Rhys he’ll spread his legs for free shipping on Amazon.” he joked, sort of. Kind of. It...there was a joke in there.

He hoped.

Fiona snorted at that and continued her diatribe on him, letting him know that he would be working double shifts for the next two weeks to make up the hours that he had lost and when she finally let him off the phone, he was exhausted in mind, body and soul and as soon as he hit his bed he was practically catatonic.

It had been an incredibly eventful week for Rhys, he thought. In the course of it, he had gone from being a consistently helpless person who had the worlds most god awfully persistent stalker to someone who had committed double murder and had kinky sex with a man who kidnapped him and apparently had a pretty prevalent murder kink.

This whole thing was so bizarre, so unusual and out of left field that he was pretty sure he would wake up in the morning and find out that none of this was real and he was back to being plain old Rhys.

If not...well, if not then he would be able to find out exactly what form “arrangements” came in.


	4. Establish Precedent

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I put the daddy kink in there, also another murder bc why not.
> 
> This is not badwrong so much as self indulgent comedic murder husband porn

“Arrangements,” had come in the form of an incredibly tall and burly man named Wilhelm who practically refused to say more than two words to him at a time. However, Rhys wasn’t really complaining because Wilhelm’s lack of articulation was weirdly charming and considering the insane amount of verbal diarrhea that Jack spewed out regularly, it was a nice change of pace.

In any case, Wilhelm was being paid the type of money that you’d give a contract killer to keep an eye on Rhys and make sure he got to where he needed to go and back safely.

Wilhelm didn’t pay it much mind, just looked at it as if Rhys was some sugar baby he’d taken in and he wanted to make sure his prospective property was alright.

“Thanks for the ride, Wilhelm.” He hummed, if just to be polite. “I mean I know you’re being paid but...” He pouted, irritation setting his features unattractively before he quickly recovered and smiled graciously at the larger man, “Thanks.”

“Sure.” was all his bodyguard bothered to say before pulling into the parking lot of Pandora’s Box, Rhys jumped out with a wave of a goodbye.

He practically skipped into Pandora’s Box and into the cafes’ back room to change into his uniform. He was surprised to see August sitting there, looking a little angry at the tall mans’ lateness or existence. Realistically, August was pissed that he was about thirty five minutes late.

When he had started up at Pandoras’ Box, running to his sisters as a last ditch effort to get some sort of stability in his life, August had been…weird to him. Not, I-hate-you weird or I-wanna-fuck-you weird and not even I-think-I’m-obsessed-with-you weird. No he was just plain old weird and Rhys hadn’t a clue how to deal with it until August had not-so-casually asked Rhys if Sasha was the type to be into fancy jewelry or if he should be a little more subtle when he proposed.

After Rhys had helped him as best he could August had been a lot less weird to him and a lot more ‘Hey, you’re actually not that bad so if I see your stalker lurkin’ around I’ll break his knee caps, sound good?’, which, if Rhys was being honest with himself, was something that he found to be a just delightful thing to have in a brother-in-law.

“Sup, Reeze?” August asked as he leaned lethargically against a podium, looking down at the auburn haired male, “You’re late.”

“Mn, not much September.” Rhys teased back as he buttoned up his uniform top, “and, I know. I had a run in with someone distasteful.”

“That’s all I’m gonna get, huh?” August questioned in irritation, fanning his arms out at Rhys while the slimmer man walked away.

“Yup.” Rhys replied, popping the ‘P’ at the end obnoxiously as he got up to start his shift. “You can dock me, it’s fine.” he added, knowing how protective Fiona and Sasha got when it came to him.

“Hey, I’ll dock you if I fucking want.” August argued, “This is my shop I’ll do whatever I want.”

“Mm-kay,” Rhys hummed in vague agreement, glad to be rid of all the craziness that he had had to deal with in the past weeks.

Back at his place behind the counter, serving people overpriced chai lattes’ and blueberry muffins Rhys felt a sort of calmness that he hadn’t been able to enjoy since Handsome Jack waltzed into his life like some sort of prophetic nightmare and uprooted everything he believed and all the morals he thought he had possessed.

 _‘Whatever,_ ’ He thought to himself, _‘It’s not as if I’m not at all responsible. I killed a guy...two guys, and nothing I do is gonna change anything about this whole mess.’_

He was interrupted from his thoughts by a hand smacking down on the counter, he looked up to see two of his regulars, Athena and Janey patiently waiting for his attention. “Oh, hi.” he said stupidly and raised up his hand in an awkward wave.

“Hey-a Rhys.” Janey greeted him jovially, “How’s your hurts?” she added in a concerned way that had a smile worming on his face. He really liked Janey, she was such a sweet woman.

“Um, you know…” he trailed off sheepishly, “M alright, I guess. What can I get ya?”

“Heard you fell down a flight of stairs.” Athena cut in with a small amount of concern besetting her usually stony features. “How did you manage to do that?”

“Oh. Yeah...” Rhys replied stupidly, “Yeah, I...did that but I’m not sure I remember how. I feel stupid now, _thanks_ Athena.” he pointed a finger gun at her facetiously in his embarrassment.

“Typical.” She retorted not unkindly, “Are you sure you didn’t get any brain damage as well?”

“Man I dunno probably...Anyways.” He clicked his tongue and continued in a business like tone, “Coffee? Pastries? What can I get ya?”

“We’ll have two of those caramel coconut lattes you got on special.” Janie held up two fingers to punctuate her statement, a wry smile on her face.

“Extra caramel?” he asked with an impish grin, knowing what the answer would be and when they affirmed his request he turned to get them their drinks. “Anything else?” he added as he handed the overtly sweet drinks to the two women.

Rhys spent most of the time that he was working at Pandora’s box at the front and he was always doing something because although the cafe was rarely ever filled up there were always regulars hanging about and ordering more things.

The business of the place had gotten to the point that he had hired a girl named Gaige to walk around and see if anybody needed refills or anything else like that.

So of course, he was able to see Jack looking around for him before the older man could even get a glimpse of him.  
Rhys almost crushed the dainty pastry in his hand when he saw Handsome Jack, standing in the back of _his_ cafe, looking like a complete and utter asshole. The older man cupped his hands over his mouth and shouted, “RHYSIE! CUPCAKE, OVER HERE!” effectively acting and looking like an asshole at the same time.

 _‘That asshole,’_ Rhys thought as he sneered at the presence of the older man. It was one thing for Jack to come and uproot the other parts of his life but this was his domain. He couldn’t just come into his soon-to-be own business and make an ass of himself.

Rhys moved over to him, already emotionally exhausted as Jack was wont to do to him. “Jack?” He blinked a few times in quick succession. “What a...surprise!” he stated in a numb and dumbfounded tone. “Why don’t we talk? Outside.”

Rhys walked over to the other man with a false smile on his face that was quickly wiped and became a grimace as soon as they were alone and in whispering distance of each other.

“What are you doing here?” Rhys whispered fiercely, “You...what are doing? At my job? I work with these people, you can’t just come here and...and…be all...augh!” Rhys threw his hands up in frustration, “Come into my life! Parade around like an asshole! Fine! But this is my place – soon to be my place, anyway.” Rhys seethed, “I can’t have you running around here and making an ass of yourself, okay?”

“Are you done?” Jack asked in a flippant and sardonic tone, “Do you need to pout and complain a little more, kitten?”

Rhys just narrowed his eyes at the older man and refused to say anything else so Jack continued talking, “I’ll take that as a yes, princess. So. Here’s the deal; I’m taking you out...like dinner not – you know what I’m talkin’ about you’re a smart cupcake.”

“What?” Rhys whispered in mortification, “Are…are you sure that that’s a good idea?”

“It’s my idea.” Jack retorted, almost offended that Rhys would even ask. “Of course it’s good. Come on let me wine and dine the fuck outta your pretty little ass.”

Rhys looked thoughtful for a moment before sighing in defeat and muttering, “Okay. Whatever. Fine.”

He figured that anything with Jack was going to be an all day affair – he realized that this was really going to put a damper in his business plans for Pandora’s Box. He wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to get anything done in his personal life ever again.

“Hey Sash? I’m taking the day off!” He called to his sister begrudgingly. Neither of them would bother to move from their place if screaming was still an option.

“That’s fine! I’ll just have Fi take the counter!” She replied, “Have fun on your date! You should let him know that he should be sure he gets that stick out of your ass first!”

Rhys’ face was one look of pure mortification as he let the teasing words she said sink in.

“It’s not a date! And even if it was Jack wouldn’t – I don’t have a…” Rhys practically screeched back at her, “Shut up!”

“Whatever!” Sasha replied, “Have fun on your not – a – date.”

“Let’s...go I guess.” Rhys pouted, still completely suspicious of Jack and the type of man he was – murder notwithstanding.

“Come along then, Rhysie.” Jack crooned, taking the younger mans’ chin in his hand with deceptive gentleness.

Rhys didn’t trust it for a moment…okay, maybe he trusted it for one or two moments.

“I got somewhere nice I’m planning on taking you.” Jack wrapped an arm around the auburn haired males waist and practically dragged him along and Rhys was helpless to do much else than follow him along like a lamb to the slaughter.

* * *

Jack had ended up taking Rhys to a ritzy, over the top type of restaurant and told him expressly not to worry about the cost and that he would take care of it – no matter what it was.

Rhys had almost told him that he damn well better treat him if he was going to drag him – through no will or want of his own, remember – to a place where the bread was imported from a destitute french bakers’ brick oven in per-revolutionary France.

He didn’t say that – because that would just be stupid and would end awfully – instead, he opted to be at least somewhat polite and try to stay on the mans’ good side.

“Why did you drag me here of all places?” Rhys wondered out loud to the other man, “Shouldn’t we be somewhere more...” he shrugged, “Horror movie?”

“Nah, see...” Jack murmured, pulling Rhys against him with purpose so that the younger man was practically laying in his lap, “I want people to know, or think at least that you’re the pretty thing hanging off my arm. I want it to be public knowledge that you’re mine.”

Rhys scoffed, about to ask Jack what exactly might have him thinking that he would want anything to do with him beyond their shared “hobby” but when he sat and thought of it he could use it to his advantage.

He could play nice, sure. He would do it, if only to get Handsome Jack to be a little more lenient with him, maybe have it so there wasn’t a giant mass of muscles shadowing him in his day to day life because that was probably the most he could ask for out of this garbage situation.

Plus, it would definitely seem less suspicious if it seemed like he was Handsome Jacks new sugar baby / boyfriend or whatever the older man wanted from him.

“Then what are you?” Rhys hummed questioningly, barely audible enough for the man sitting next to him to hear. “My murder boyfriend?” he queried playfully, “My sugar daddy?”

He moved to lean closer to the older man, because he was freezing cold and not for any other reason of course.

“I like the whole ‘murder boyfriend’ shtick, maybe we should see where that goes.” Jack remarked, letting the other man lay against him sleepily. Not like he was complaining, mind you. “I’m surprised you’re not still pissed.” he remarked blandly, like it was an after thought.

“Mmh, No.” The younger man mumbled into Jacks’ waistcoat, barely audible for the other man to hear. He leaned in further, taking comfort in the reassuring touches that Jack administered despite himself and he smiled up at the other man as he spoke. “It was more like I was pissed at you giving me a concussion. And doing that...thing with you was fun.”

“Which thing?” Jack goaded, “Me fucking you stupid or...the other thing?”

“Mmm...” Rhys blushed as he trailed off, “Both?” he admitted softly, “Took me a moment to realize but… I’m kind of into the whole thing. All of it.”

“I figured.” Jack responded, “From the moment I saw your pretty little face, looking pissed as all hell while you,” He lowered his voice again, “Took care of wallet head… I had you pegged as someone I could fucking count on.” he had a look on his face that had Rhys feeling chilled and a pooling warmth in his belly at the exact same time.

Jack had a strange effect on him – like he couldn’t decide on whether he wanted to punch the man in the face or grab him and kiss him hard and for some strange and unknown reason he was always leaning towards the kissing.

It was troublesome, because all he wanted to do was hate Jack for all the evil, manipulative stuff he had already done to him but it seemed that the thing that his id decided to focus on were times like these when Jack was good to him, took him out to fancy restaurants or practically fucked the life out of him.

He hadn’t known Jack for very long but fuck if the man hadn’t left a damnable impression on him and Rhys couldn’t help but wonder if he had made just as much of an impression on the older man as he had on him.

Sure Jack seemed hell bent on keeping him and having him kill people with him but Rhys couldn’t decide if that was just feelings of ownership over him or if he might actually...mean something to Jack.

The moment that Rhys was about to open his mouth and try to put his thoughts into words, an overly chipper blonde waitress walked over to them, “Hi!” she chirped in a pitch that was high enough that only dogs should have been able to hear it.

 _‘okay that’s mean’_ Rhys reminded himself.

Because it obviously wasn’t her fault so he couldn’t in all good conscience hold it against her – but…he swore that his ear drums were going to end up bleeding. She continued on with her speaking in the exact same tone of voice, much to the ire of his sense of hearing. “Can I take your orders?”

They took their orders and patiently sat to await their food – when it came, the two of them dug in and  
the whole situation was so peaceful that Rhys forgot who he happened to be sitting next to – forgot himself, really – and allowed himself to relax and bask in the good food and quiet company.

Rhys didn’t notice the touches at first because they were almost chaste in nature, a little stroke down Rhys’ thigh with his thumb, or a brush through his hair...it was, in a word calming.

It felt nice, like he was being cared for and that was something that he had been sorely missing – for longer than Vasquez had uprooted his life.

His eyes opened and he was snapped out of his hazy and relaxed state as he realized that Jacks fingers were working open the buttons of his slacks. Without thinking, Rhys smacked the hand away with as much force as he could muster.

“What are you doing?” He squeaked in mortification, “There are – Jack we’re in public!”

“I’m just having a little fun. Don’t worry, no ones looking. I got us a private booth for a reason, kitten.” Jack cooed to him, “You don’t need to do anything, just relax a little for me, baby. Let daddy do all the work for you.”

It was tempting – fuck it was tempting – to just let the older man do whatever he pleased with Rhys, to sit there like a pretty doll for Jack to tease and play with but still his sense of decency and pride inhibited him from allowing himself that.

“I don’t – ah, Jack I don’t think we should do this here.” Rhys protested feebly as Jack began to peel down Rhys’ pants anyway. “Jack, we – nghh! - w-we could get caught.” he wasn’t sure that he could go through with something like this.

Jack was incredibly gentle with him as he gripped his cock and stroked him to hardness, “Doesn’t that feel good?” Rhys could practically hear the sneer that Jack had as he condescended to him, “Or do you still want to stop?”

“I…” Rhys hesitated, still nervous about the whole affair. He buried his face further into the older mans’ chest and refused to look at Jack. “Yes.” he mumbled, barely audible to even himself.

“Let’s go.” Jack said to him then, his tone incredibly business like for someone who had been molesting Rhys for the past half hour as they ate. “We can continue this somewhere private like you wanted.”

“Do we have to leave?” Rhys croaked, he was already almost drunk from the sweet touches that Jack had fed to him and he was sure that if the older man had him stand then he’d be embarrassingly hard with desperate sounding whines emitting from him that all of the respectable, upper crust people in this restaurant would be mortified to hear.

“Yeah, kitten we gotta go now.” Jack said and at the very audible whine that his counterpart gave he added flirtatiously, his voice a low and husky rumble.

“But weren’t you gonna-” but he was cut off by the older man as he continued on speaking.

“How’s about the two of us go somewhere private and blow off that steam?” Jacks’ grin deepening the more he talked. “Or you know...I could just blow you. Sound good to you, kitten?”

Rhys nodded, as if to say that ‘yes, Jack that does sound very good to me.’ and almost gleefully walked back with the older man to his car.

He held Rhys in a way that made Jack seem like a buffer between the two of them and the rest of the world – as if polite society wouldn’t be allowed to intrude in their twisted little bubble.

Rhys was grateful for the possessive and protective way that the older man was looming against him with an arm wrapped around the younger mans more slender waist as he was held close against Jacks body.

Jack on the other hand, was deep in thought with plans and ideas that he had for Rhys – and just plans that would be carried out that day at that.

The kid just had so much potential, he could go so far with that stubborn attitude and that pretty face of his. Rhys was like a natural born honey trap for anyone that the young man wanted to lure and even Jack found himself being subconsciously drawn to him – something that might have worried him if Rhys wasn’t already practically his property.

Plus, there was all that rage that his protege had been bottling up for god knows how long – he had been dangerously efficient with Wallet Head and the man that the two of them had killed together, so much so that Jack had almost been startled by the sudden change.

He knew that his Rhysie would absolutely love the little surprise that he had for him – whether the kid realized it or not at this point, this sort of thing was just in his blood.

If Jack was correct - and he always was, then he was sure that it would only be a few more kills before his kitten was absolutely hooked on it.

* * *

Whatever Rhys had been expecting when he came back to Handsome Jacks’ home, it had definitely not been a man drugged and tied up – the entire space had been covered in a plastic tarp while the man was tied to an iron wrought chair.

“Jack…” Rhys began with a suspicious and flippant tone, “What is this?” he asked, “WHO is this?!”

“Oh uh, yeah that’s...” Jack paused with a frown, “Don’t remember his name, actually.” he let out a cruel chuckle, “But I figured it be fun to do a repeat of last week.”

“I’m gonna ruin all of my clothes if we keep doing this.” Rhys complained softly, although he had the sinking suspicion that his objections with the situation would not be heard.

On the other hand, Jack could tell that the younger mans resolve was steadily crumbling – it was not as if Rhys didn’t enjoy this every bit as much as Jack did, he just needed to come to terms with it.

“Then take ‘em off.” Jack crooned, “Come on it’s not like he’s gonna go around town telling everyone how you look nude anyways.” he snapped the fabric of Rhys’ pants to accentuate his point. “And I’d really like to see the view.”

“Classy.” Rhys bit out sarcastically, “I’m not stripping for a murder. I’m not doing...that.” he frowned, more nervous than upset at this point. “I… this is so… Jack you didn’t tell me that you had… this is just really unexpected.”

“But it sounds really fun, doesn’t it kitten?” Jack asked in a way that suggested that he knew exactly what the answer would be. “A little after lunch murder is great to keep the blood pumpin’ pumpkin.”

“I…” Rhys looked down as he bit his lip in trepidation, “Dammit.” he whispered, “you’re right, it does sound like fun.” he added, in surprise of his own words.

Rhys couldn’t believe himself. What the hell was wrong with him? And what exactly had happened to him only doing this to people who deserved it?

Maybe his subconscious had just hit ‘fuck it’ and decided that he may as well go big or go home…but hurting this man sounded better than anything else, it sounded like worlds of fun and excitement.

“Here you are, pumpkin.” Jack hummed, handing him his knife.

“Uhm,” Rhys began to stammer, “How exactly did you get this?”

“Don’t worry, I just had Wilhelm grab it from your apartment.”

“That doesn’t sound-”

“What did I just say about worrying?” Jack snapped, “Don’t worry about him, he’ll follow money like a dog after a bone. He’s gonna look the other way cause I pay him to.”

What Jack said made sense to Rhys and he was willing to accept that line of thought so he took the blade and held the knife in his hand gingerly.

He turned and regarded their victim with a look of careful contemplation – it was almost as if he had separated this man from reality in his mind, like he wasn’t actually a real person to Rhys’ consciousness.

It suited him for the moment, for what he had chosen to partake in.

“Please!” The man begged – Rhys made it a point to himself not to think of what his name, life or real personality might be like – looking at him with a pathetic expression. “I – I have a wife and kids! they’re going to miss me, please just let me go and I won’t say anything. I promise!”

Rhys frowned, unimpressed by the clear cowardice that he was showing. “Well, there’s always that lofty life insurance policy.” he quipped in a falsely sympathetic tone. “And I doubt they’re really going to miss you all that much.”

Rhys didn’t get to see the way that Jack had been looking at him as he cruelly spoke to their victim but if he had, he would have thought that Jack was falling in love with him.

“Damn, kitten.” he hummed, pressing a kiss to Rhys’ chestnut colored hair. “That’s cold. Cold – so fucking cold and cruel.” he pressed another kiss to the younger mans face, “I’m so proud of you, honey.”

Rhys let his lips quirk upwards into a half smile before he took to cutting delicately at the mans skin, watching the blood drip down on to the floor.

He didn’t really plan on making this last, he hoped that the man could take solace in a lack of torture – he probably wouldn’t see the niceness of that, oh well – so he tried to cut at vital areas, only allowing himself to revel ever so slightly in the pleas and screams that the man let out.

He only stopped when his wrist was gently grabbed by his counterpart, “He’s dead, Rhysie.” Jack hummed, looking over at the younger man with amusement. “You can stop now.”

Rhys looked at the older man with a puzzled expression for a moment before he thought to speak back to Jack, “I’m sorry.” he said, “Must have gotten a little carried away there.”

“Tell me about it.” The older man grinned sardonically and took a moment to wipe away a drop of blood that had dripped down his neck, “It should be illegal to look cute while you’re covered in blood like that.” he commented. It was a good thing that he had Rhys strip before they killed...whatever his name was.

He wanted to say Derek or maybe Joseph, something bland and forgettable as all hell – Jack was sure that he wouldn’t be missed.

Rhys smiled weakly at the older man, he was still exhausted from the killing and hoped that Jack would be gentle with him when they inevitably slept together after this. “Actually, I’m pretty sure that it is.” he joked, leaning forward so much that he nearly toppled over.

Jack chuckled at him, “Need some help there, kitten?” he cooed in a questioning manner. “I can carry you.” he added like it was an afterthought – it wasn’t.

Rhys didn’t seem to care in any case, “Yes, please.” he asked with so much sincerity that Jack almost mocked the kid for it. He was definitely glad that he decided not to when Rhys continued pleading, “I don’t think I can hold myself up right now, Jack please.”

“You’re so tiny for someone so tall. What do you weight? Like ninety pounds?” Jack commented as he pulled the younger man up and carried him, “Oh baby, do you have any idea just how fucking cute you are?”

Rhys buried his face against the older mans chest as he was carried out of the kill space, “I’ll take care of the body, just like I did last time.” he added thoughtfully, “You don’t need to worry about anything like that.”

If he were a little more lucid, he may have objected or protested to the condescending way that Jack had been choosing to treat him – but he felt so nice that he couldn’t think to even lift his head and look at Handsome Jack.

He wrapped his arms around the older mans waist to stabilize himself as Jack continued to praise and berate him all in the same breath.

“Where are we going?”

“Bedroom.” Jack replied in a tone that had Rhys thinking that he must have come off as incredibly stupid.

“Oh.” The younger man hummed, “Right. Because we’re gonna – right.”

The older man snorted, “You just let daddy take care of you, understand?”

“Okay daddy.” Rhys mumbled without thinking, before opening his mouth in mortification. He stammered a bit before he managed to recover enough to actually try and salvage himself from his embarrassment.

“Really kitten?” Jack spoke in a mockingly disappointed tone but it seemed real enough to cause panic in the slighter male, much to his amusement.

“But I didn’t mean to – I just – and you keep calling yourself ‘daddy’ and it -” Rhys let out a helpless whine as he realized that he had been able to achieve nothing other than make the whole situation even worse than it was.

“Fucking cute as hell,” Jack murmured to himself before addressing the young man in his arms, “Don’t you worry about it, baby. You can call me daddy all you want, I don’t have a problem with it.” then he let out a string of mean snickers, “As long as you’re a good boy for daddy, that is.”

One of Jacks’ hands moved down to roughly pinch his ass as he groped the meaty flesh of it, “I won’t have a problem with that though, will I?” he got a smack that time, “You don’t want to get in trouble, do you kitten?”

The question was obviously rhetorical but Rhys felt the need to answer anyway, he always got a little stupid when this sort of thing happened – especially, he noticed, with Jack.

“Ah, of c-course not daddy.” he babbled sweetly, looking at Jack with lusty and glazed over doe eyes. He looked like he wanted nothing more than to please the older man, “I – I’ll be a good boy.”

“Of course you will, pumpkin.” Jack cooed sweetly, allowing Rhys to slowly and lazily rut against him as he was carried away.

Because he couldn’t blame the younger man for his reactions, really. Jack knew exactly the words to make Rhys feel heated with shame and arousal and he had Rhys pegged as someone who absolutely loved feeling humiliated and small – and he was right.

Without even realizing it, Rhys had found himself pressed against Jacks mattress and looked up at the man with a strange expression. “How did we – ah!”

He cut himself off with a moan as Jack kissed him and haphazardly stripped away his clothing. “Keep being a good little slut for me, pumpkin – and stay just like that.” he ordered sternly, but Rhys kept squirming, more and more with how much Jack decided to berate him.

There was something about the words that had him feeling hazy and lust filled – the idea that he might ever get off to calling someone daddy had been absurd to him before but now it seemed to make more sense than anything else in the world.

It just seemed like it was right, like it was the missing puzzle piece that he happened to need. A lot of crazy things had begun to seem like they were exactly what he needed, though, so maybe Rhys shouldn’t have been so surprised by it.

Eventually Rhys’ squirming earned him a sharp smack to his ass from Jack, he looked at his assailant with irritation and confusion in his eyes that Jack immediately addressed.

“You need to stop testing my patience, kitten.” Jack tutted him as he caught the younger mans chin in his hand and forced Rhys to look at him. “or else I might just decide to leave you here.”

Rhys’ eyes widened at that, it would be just like Jack to leave him hanging like this – that **asshole**.

“But-” he began to protest but Jack cut him off by speaking over the younger man.

“But...seeing as how you’ve been so good for me, I think that I’ll give you a pass.” Jack assured him, gently rubbing at the bare skin of Rhys’ chest until his fingers found pale pink nipples encased in the blue tattoos that seemed to travel the entire expanse of his body.

Rhys practically jumped when the older man pinched the peaking nubs and Jack tutted him, “I want you to try your best to be nice and still for me while I play a little.Can you do that for me, pumpkin?”  
he hummed to Rhys, holding his hands perfectly still on his proteges’ body until he responded with a mute nod.

“Look at these,” Jack murmured as he toyed with the sensitive skin, eliciting tiny whines and moans from the slim man that he had been holding captive. “So pretty and pink, baby.” he praised, moving down to sink his teeth into the sensitive pink flesh.

“Jack!” Rhys cried out, it was music to the older mans’ ears. He relished in those whines of pleasure-pain and the way that Rhys shook trying not to break position. “Please just, please just fuck me daddy.”

Jack didn’t listen to him, or at the very least he made it so that he appeared not to be listening and continued to bite and kiss at Rhys’ skin. “Please Jack, please. I’ve been a good boy.”

“Have you?” Jack teased, “You sure about that pumpkin?”

Rhys hesitated before he answered with a soft, “Yes I think so.”

In that moment, Rhys found himself being manhandled onto the older mans’ lap. Jack truly loved how easy Rhys was to maneuver in whatever position that he wanted his protege in.

“Then I got no reason not to fuck the ever living shit outta you.” Jack growled in a husky rumble, “hold your legs open for me, babe.” He tapped against the rim of Rhys’ hole, “So I can get better access to this. Don’t worry about a thing, honey – you just sit there like that and look pretty for daddy.”

Rhys obeyed hastily, putting his arms below his knees and holding them up and open for the older mans’ pleasure.

Jacks’ lathered his own fingers in lotion before prodding them at Rhys hole, “Gotta get you nice and open, sweet thing.” he hummed as he pumped one finger in and out of the younger man. “Look at you Rhysie, you fit on my lap so well that you’d think that’s what you were born to do.”

Rhys sighed out helplessly, at a loss for words as Jacks’ large fingers massaged his walls so efficiently, he looked at Jack with bleary eyes and a dreamy smile. Rhys was anxious to have the older man inside of him – even more so if the way he ground down on the fingers inside of him were a good tell – and Jack was more than willing to give the younger man everything he wanted.

Jack practically sighed in relief when he finally got Rhys stretched enough to thrust his cock into the younger man, “All mine, huh?” Jack growled out as bottomed out into the younger mans’ hole.

“All yours.” Rhys echoed lazily, his thighs spread obscenely wide around the older man. He let out soft moans and whines, opting to put his fingers into his mouth to muffle the noise.

“That’s cute.” Jack crooned, nudging his fingers against Rhys’ mouth so that the younger man could suck on his instead of his own, Rhys obliged the man with a smile that told Jack that his younger counterpart must not realize what he was doing – he must have been so lost in subspace that he was barely even there.

It really egged Jack on knowing that he had put Rhys – who was usually so mouthy and independent – into such a sweet, submissive state. “I’m gonna fuckin’ ruin you, kitten.” He growled as he pumped into the slighter male, “You’re gonna get filled up so good that nobody else will be able to make you cum ever again.” he kissed against Rhys’ neck, “You won’t be able to get off without thinking of me, Rhysie.”

It didn’t take much longer for the two of them to come in quick succession of each other, Jack pulled Rhys into a sloppy kiss as he lazily thrusted into Rhys again and again until he managed to tire himself out.

Rhys lay against the older man lethargically, if he had been tired after he finished killing he was exhausted now. Like, not even just the normal kind of exhaustion that you might get from pulling an all nighter but real ‘I’m going to die right now’ exhaustion.

His eyes fluttered open and shut periodically, “Let’s get you cleaned up, sweetness.” Jack hummed brushing the hair away from Rhys’ eyes.

“Yeah.” The younger man agreed, “But, uhm … do you think you can help me?”

Jack gave him an exxagerated once over, “Of course, pumpkin. You don’t gotta worry about anything, I’m right here for you.”

Although he had experienced it more than once at this point – Rhys was still very much surprised at the level of care and efficiency that Jack brought into his aftercare.

It was a good character trait to have, don’t get him wrong on that note – just not something he would have expected out of even just billionaire CEO Handsome Jack, a man who was practically trade marked for his cruelty was generally surprising to him.

He would have never guessed that about him – he had never gleaned that from the piles and piles of gossipy information and interviews that he had read on him.

Because Jack had been the subject of his idolization for god knows how long before he had started working for Hyperion and it had continued on for quite a while after he had quit.

He just seemed so…magnetic? Yeah, that’s it. Like he was someone that Rhys could relate to, someone who had the same wishes and wants that he did, someone who got him – not to mention the fact that he was the very picture of a college aged Rhys’ wet dreams.

But weirdness and general fanboy creepiness had always been within the parameters of social acceptableness. He like to think that at the very least he wasn’t as weird as that Nakayama guy in Research and Development.

Rhys was pretty sure that that guy had been in the works of some Handsome Jack android and that was way more weird than a perfectly healthy scrapbook that had all the interviews that Jack has done – that he could find, that is – and a few, a few bits of merchandise.

That was healthy and any therapist you spoke to would most definitely agree – yup. Though meeting Handsome Jack in person had definitely put a damper on the romanticized hero worship that had practically enraptured his very being.

Jack was less of a god and more of a man to him these days – a flawed and emotionally disturbed, violent man but a man nonetheless.

In any case the gentle way that Jack was touching him and the sweet, reassuring words that he was cooing were doing wonders at soothing his nerves and he gave his former idol a sleepy and satisfied smile as a token of thanks.

There was a rumbling chuckle from the older man, “Good?” he hummed sweetly. “You’ve done so well for me, cupcake.” he praised, “That was an amazing kill.”

Jack kissed at the side of his neck and face, “I mean it Rhysie. Amazing.” he added, “I mean when he was begging for his life, crying about his family… kitten you got so damn cold with him, just ended it there.” another chaste kiss, “Who knew someone so beautiful could be so cruel?”

“Thanks.” Rhys sighed out, “That’s really sweet of you to say.” he joked weakly as an afterthought, there was fondness in his eyes. “You’re a real knight in shining armor.”

“Damn right, baby doll.” Jack replied in just as sarcastic a tone. “I’m your fucking prince charming. Here to rescue you from being a boring little nothing of a human being – I’m here to turn you into something even more beautiful than you already are.”

“Through murder and kinky fucking?” Rhys hummed questioningly, “I don’t think there’s anything in any fairy tales that you read that included being showered in some anonymous guys blood.”

“Is there any other way?” Jack arched a brow, “But I got other things to shower you with; gifts, dates, fucking European vacations. Anything that your little heart desires.”

He had to admit that it sounded nice – no one had ever bothered to spoil him before.

They never _had_ to, really. He had done his fair share of throwing himself at the first validating warm body and lending excuse after excuse to the toxic sort of people that he tended to date – it had driven his family absolutely crazy.

Rhys eyes began to feel heavy and it was almost like he was living in a dream as this happened. He felt so soothed and relaxed, he felt impossibly good – like he was being put under some sort of spell.

“D’ya want me to put on a movie for us, darling?” Jack stroked his hair as he asked, letting Rhys lay there lethargically, “Anything specific?”

Rhys nodded, “Do you have the princes bride?” he asked – although he was sure that Jack very well may have owned every piece of media known to man and some that weren’t even able to be purchased by the general population.

Then strong arms were around him, caging him in a protective bubble again. He smiled dreamily and nuzzled against the broader form that was holding him.

Eventually Jack fell asleep but he couldn’t seem to get the same sort of relief. Rhys stared at the ceiling and got lost in his thoughts, he began to realize as he lay awake with Handsome Jacks’ arms wrapped around him in a tight, possessive hold that he was already in too deep with Jack.

What else was he going to do because he had been told to? Probably anything.

There wasn’t much of anything worse than murder but he was sure that if anyone were to be able to sink lower – become impossibly more depraved and immoral – it would most definitely be Handsome Jack to do it.

Eventually his eyes fluttered shut, exhausted by his thoughts and worn out by the events of the day. He dreamt of unrealistically good sex, sweet touches and even sweeter words… he dreamt of many things that night but most of all he dreamt of how good it felt for him to hold someone else’s life in his hands like he had earlier that day.


	5. We Interrupt Your Scheduled Programming...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is mainly smutty and a little filler-esque but that's because it's like... a segue chapter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> JESUS this took forever, sorry about that guys.

The coming weeks were more of a blur to Rhys than anything else – a lot of fucking, killing, killing followed by fucking or vice verse. He knew that this was the most unhealthy relationship he had ever been in but somehow, Rhys found himself so drawn to Handsome Jack that he couldn’t figure out a way to let himself pull away from him.

It wasn’t fair – Jack was so magnetic, so charming, so handsome, so… Jack. There was no way that he could be expected to ever do the right thing when the wrong thing was hedonistic and righteous and just plain right all in the same row.

Then he would do these things for him, things that seemed to placate Rhys, confuse him and infuriate him all at the same time. Today, for instance, Jack did something for him that seemed a little bit ham-fisted – even for someone as gregarious as Handsome Jack and he was struggling to put it into words just how much it annoyed him that his boyfriend (?) did something like that.

“Pumpkin,” Jack called, snapping him out of his thoughts. “Come on, sweet thing. I don’t have all day, what the hell’s wrong with you?”

“I went to my landlords office today so I could pay my rent.” Rhys started, looking already irritated as he brought it up. “And they told me that I’m payed up… for the entirety of my lease.”

“So?” The older man quipped in reply, giving Rhys an affronted look. “What’s the problem? I paid your rent for you.” he said, “I did a nice thing.” he added in a tone that told Rhys, ‘That’s not really something I’m known to do.’

“But you… Jack, don’t you get it?” Rhys said with a tone of complete exasperation, “You can’t just do these things for people… it’ s too much! I don’t want to owe you anything-”

Jack cut him off with a growl and Rhys looked at the man owlishly as Jack braced his hands against Rhys’ shoulders. The grip wasn’t punishing but it was heavy-handed enough that the younger man didn’t do anything to fight the hold because he knew how vulnerable that he was to Jack in this position.

“Let’s get one thing fucking clear, kitten. You don’t owe me a damn. You’re all mine and I take care of what’s mine.” there was a possessiveness to Jacks’ words that scared him a little and made him shrink just the tiniest bit in on himself in passive self defense. “I really didn’t think that something as little as this would be a problem for you.” the way that Jack said that last statement was insulting enough to the younger man that he couldn’t help but defend his actions – if in a more subdued manner than before.

“But-” Rhys was cut off as Jack pulled the slighter male closer to him and pressed their lips together in a forceful manner, harsh and dominating enough that it managed to blur out all of Rhys’ thoughts and leave him almost breathless from the rough and manipulative affection that he received. “Oh…” he exclaimed softly as Jack pulled back from the kiss.

“Do you want to have a little fun?” Jack asked, giving Rhys the most obvious once over in the world. It didn’t stop his partner from thinking that he was referring to murder though and the younger man hesitated in giving an answer. “I meant, do you want to let me take you back to my office at Hyperion, bend you over my desk and fuck your brains out?” he reiterated in a tone of voice that managed to shame Rhys into submission. The younger man eagerly agreed, with one caveat. “Do you think we can go to my place and do that? I need to check up on a few things at home.”

* * *

  
Despite how awful he knew this might turn out, Jack found himself becoming more and more drawn to Rhys day by day. And sure, he had planned on keeping Rhys all to himself – his partner was just too damn cute for Jack to be alright with knowing that anyone else was touching him – and the only way that he could be able to convince Rhys to do that was to be in a relationship with the kid, but would have never expected himself to get so attached to him. Especially not so fast.

But Rhys was… well, Rhys was an anomaly in and of his self; gorgeous, smart and decent in a lot of ways and in all of the ways that would matter to most people. He was sweet, he cared about people and forgave them even when they didn’t deserve it – though Jack thought that there were very few people who deserved forgiveness and even fewer who didn’t deserve punishment for their crimes – and he was just… nice, in general.

At the very same time, Rhys was a killer – a coldhearted, stone faced, sadistic and just plain cruel killer. It was the strangest dichotomy that Jack had ever experienced from a person and it kept him on his toes about his ‘too damn pretty for his own good’ partner. It kept him interested too, because he was sure that Rhys wasn’t just nice because that was what was expected of him or because he needed to be inconspicuous – no, Jack was pretty sure that Nice Rhys and Killer Rhys were two people wrapped up in one pretty package.

So, yes, Jack was way more willing to say ‘yes’ to Rhys than he would be proud to admit but he still wouldn’t have expected himself to become the type of boyfriend that would just sit back and watch while the person they were dating gave an inane amount of attention to a dog. Eugh, he hated dogs just as much as they seemed to hate him – which was a lot, if you’ve ever seen one try to bite his hand off.

“He’s very docile, you know.” Rhys said, snapping Jack out of his admittedly maladaptive thoughts. The younger man smiled at him in a way that was a little too fond for his tastes as he added, “He won’t bite or anything.”

“Eh, it’s fine. Me and dogs don’t really…” The older man trailed off, looking past Rhys at Loader-Bot with cautiousness – he couldn’t help it, the thing was freaking huge – and readied himself just in case it tried to attack him.

“Click?” Rhys tried and at Jacks’ nod he added sympathetically, “Mm, that’s alright, we can go pretty soon I just have to check on both of them every so often or I start worrying. Reminds me. Have you seen Gortys yet? She’s so cute, I just found her a few months ago so she’s still kind of a baby and I-” the younger mans’ expression turned a little more serious. “Right. You don’t care, sometimes I forget that you’re…” he trailed off, looking for a way to put it that wasn’t ‘You’re a psychopath’. He finally decided to just say, “Not a pet person.” with a shrug.

Jack smirked, “Actually, I like cats. It’s really only dogs that I’ve got a problem with.” he said, more to challenge Rhys than anything else. “You got a cat right? Can I see it?” Rhys smiled in that stupid – genuine – way of his, “Sure!” he chirped, bouncing a little on his heels as he led the older man back to his bedroom. “She’s always in here.” he informed Jack, “And by that I mean she practically refuses to leave my bed. She’s the clingiest cat I’ve ever had.”

“What a voyeur.” Jack joked as Rhys picked up the white and gray kitten, ignoring all of the mewling complaints coming from it as he did so, and held it to Rhys’ chest.

“You wanna hold her?” the young man asked, looking hopefully at Jack – like he was desperate for a bit of normalcy in their relationship. Rhys definitely wanted nothing more than to have a boyfriend who wasn’t a serial killer or even the type of man who owned his own billion dollar company. If you asked him, he would tell you that he would give anything just to have a normal relationship that wasn’t centered around gratuitous sex and murder.

“She’s really friendly…” Rhys coaxed him a little more and Jack hesitated for a moment before he spoke, “Sure.” he said, “Let me see the kitten, kitten.” he added jokingly, eliciting a giggle from his partner as Rhys handed Gortys to him.

Jack didn’t want to hold this cat – no, what he really wanted was to have Rhys bent in a totally compromising position while he fucked the younger man. That would be great – but here he was, with a tiny kitten rolling around in his lap without a care in the world. Occasionally yelling at him to pet her a little more – it was adorably stupid but not what he wanted to be doing.

He sighed and looked over at Rhys, the younger man had this stupid – happy – look on his face, one that was so annoyingly endearing that he couldn’t even manage to hate this weird situation that he found himself in. “Aw, she likes you!” Rhys gushed as he scratched the cat behind her ears. “Well, she likes everyone but it’s usually just a politeness thing, usually she’ll hang out for a few minutes with someone and then run off.” Jack laughed at that, it was the most ridiculous thing that he had heard all week, “But she actually really likes you!” he added as Jack gave the cat back to Rhys, plopping her in the younger mans’ lap unceremoniously as he did so.

Rhys pouted a bit and Jack took his chin in hand, “You’re cute, Rhysie.” he complimented the younger man before he pressed his lips against Rhys’ and pushed the two of them back down on the bed. Rhys let out a surprised squeak and pushed against Jacks’ chest, eventually pushing him all the way off of Rhys. “Rhysie, what the hell?” he asked, annoyance clear in his features.

“Jack!” Rhys snapped, gesturing towards Gortys with the hand that wasn’t cradling her. “Cat! There’s a- you could have crushed her!” Jack gave Rhys a look that said ‘I wish I could understand you’ in response to that.

The older man sighed, like he was incredibly put upon by the entire situation and picked the cat up. “Is there anywhere I can put her so I can safely fuck your brains out?” he asked in a tone filled to the brim with sarcasm. Rhys pouted up at him, before pursing his lips in thought, “Take her out into the living room. She’ll be fine with Loaderbot…” he smiled in a nostalgic way, “they’re friends.” he chirped.

Jack scoffed and walked out of the bedroom to properly dispose of the cat on one of the many love seats in Rhys’ living room, Gortys complaining and whining the whole time through. “Oh, shut up.” he scolded her, flicking her rudely on the nose as he did so. He walked back, eager and ready to pounce on his pretty little protege.

He had not expected Rhys to strip himself and pose himself on the bed like a porn star while he was gone from the room, an unexpected surprise, but not one that he would ever complain about.“Oh, pumpkin.” he said as he came upon Rhys’ leggy form spread out on his bed with his knees bent upwards. Jack moved to lay himself between the younger mans spread legs, he pressed a chaste kiss to Rhys’ navel. “You look good enough to eat.” he said, letting calloused fingers dance up and down Rhys’ thighs with a feather light touch that had the younger man giggling like a school girl. “And I bet you taste like cupcakes, real sugary sweet and fucking delicious.”

Rhys giggled at that, “Delicious and terrible for you.” he quipped back as Jack pressed butterfly kisses up his stomach and chest, occasionally nipping at some skin or sucking marks into his sensitive, peachy flesh of his partners body.

The younger man bruised like a peach and Jack loved to have the opportunity to mark Rhys as his in every way that he could manage with lips and teeth. Jack laughed a little as Rhys sighed and shivered with pleasure from the attention that he was receiving.

Rhys lifted his hips on impulse as Jacks’ big hands soothed up his thighs in a reverent manner and the way that Jack was touching him gave him an idea. He smiled down at the older man, “Hey, can I… ride you?” Jack raised an eyebrow at that and for a moment Rhys worried that what he said might have come off as stupid or unnecessary to the older man for whatever reason.

His fears were quelled when Jack sat himself up, grabbed Rhys’ legs and flipped them so that the younger mans’ legs were straddled around his hips. Jack squeezed Rhys’ hips appreciatively, scratching his nails lightly on the bare skin of the younger mans’ hips and thighs. “That… sounds like a great time, baby.” he told Rhys, looking up at the younger man with a look that could make a porn star blush.

Rhys giggled and scooted off of him, “Then… maybe get your clothes off?” he challenged the older man, mirroring Jacks’ usual patronizing attitudes. Jacks’ impression changed from shocked to almost impressed to tenacious in a matter of moments and he kissed Rhys chastely on the lips before stepping off of the bed and quickly shedding off his own clothes.

“You’re a real fucking brat, Rhysie. You know that, right? Get me the lube, princess.” Jack snapped in a playful tone as he sat on the bed, poking the younger man in the side with a bit more harshness than he really needed. Rhys narrowed his eyes at Jack before turning around. He rooted around for everything that they needed for a few moments before he found exactly what he was looking for.

Rhys positioned himself in a way where Jack could watch him while he prepared himself, poised on his knees with his back to Jacks’ front, and lathered three of his fingers with the cool lubricant.

He made a small noise as his slick fingers brushed over his own hole, his face scrunched with mild discomfort, as preparing himself was his less than favorite thing to do, while he teased his finger into his entrance slowly. He stretched himself open with a bit more carefulness than he needed, working two and then three fingers inside of his hole – moving at a gentle pace.

Once he felt, at least somewhat, satisfied with how stretched and slick that he was, Rhys inched himself back over to Jack – the older man laying on his back stroking his own cock at a leisurely pace. “Come here, Rhysie.” Jack demanded him, voice coming out husky and deep in his throat in a way that made Rhys shiver.

The auburn haired male huffed nervously as he coated the older mans dick with a generous amount of lube before he straddled himself around Jacks’ hips and eased himself down slowly until he had Jack bottomed out inside of him.

He whined slightly from the fullness and threw his head back slightly as he rocked his hips low and slow, while Jack squeezed his ass appreciatively. “Damn, Rhysie. I should, fuck, lock you up in my penthouse and chain you down to the floor and keep you like a little cum dump.”

The words, the motions and the very way that Jack was had him sighing and moaning pitifully as he bounced his hips gently. “I mean it, baby.” the older man said, “All I want to do is keep you to myself.”

He moved a little faster and soon Jack grabbed hard onto his hips and guided him up and down at a rougher pace than he could have managed on his own. The friction was rough enough that it overwhelmed Rhys enough to not notice it and keep up the pace as Jack moved one of his hands from the younger mans’ hip to wrap around his cock.

He stroked Rhys’ cock while he kept saying dirty nothings to the younger man – calling him his pretty little whore, his plaything – and it was enough that Rhys could feel himself getting close, warmth pooling in his belly as he fucked himself onto Jacks’ cock even harder.

“Close.” he mumbled, hoping that the older man got the message, as Jack kept on stroking and rubbing him persistently. He cried out softly as Jack encouraged him by saying, “Go on, let it out. Come for me, Rhysie.” in an easy tone.

Soon enough, Rhys found himself spurting out on his own belly and Jack wasn’t all that far behind him. Jack pulled the younger man down to kiss him as he came inside of him, leaving his thighs sticky and his ass full of cum.

Rhys eased himself off of Jack gently and lay his head on the older mans chest. He shouldn’t have felt so good about this, he thought. He was sticky and he probably looked like a complete mess and as Jack looked down on him with an amused gaze he couldn’t help but get a little bit self conscious. “What?” he asked, whining a little bit as he did so. “Did I do something weird without noticing it?”

Jack laughed a little – definitely at him, by the way, he couldn’t believe that he was dating someone so mean – before he raked his fingers gently through Rhys’ hair. “It’s nothing, cupcake. I was just thinking about how freaking cute you look right now.” he said, “Innocent and shit. It’s cute, ya know?”

Rhys hummed noncommittally at that before smiling up at the older man, “I thought that I was always cute…” he said in a mockingly sad tone and it earned him another chuckle from the older man. “Shit, sorry about that pumpkin.” Jack crooned, “Why don’t I make it up to you?”

The younger man narrowed his eyes a little bit, “How do you mean?” he asked, cocking his head in a questioning move. Jack answered him by gently pushing Rhys off of him, ignoring Rhys’ complaints as the younger man rolled himself up into blankets.

“I could order us some take out.” The older man offered, “Any kind of food you want.”

“Even pancakes?” Rhys asked, in an almost challenging manner. “Cause I want pancakes.”

“Sure thing, sugar cube.” Jack assured as he ran off to call one of his employees for a more menial task than usual.

* * *

Every second, minute and hour of this day had floated by like a dream – one of the amazing, perfect ones where you would get everything that you want and feel so good that you would never wish to wake up from – with Jack suddenly switching the script and acting just like a normal boyfriend would.

It was incredibly jarring, yet somehow at the same time, it just felt right and like all the other conflicting things he felt about Jack, Rhys was sure that he would end up burying it deep down into his subconscious so that he wouldn’t have to deal with it any point in the foreseeable future.

In any case, Rhys found that he really liked being healthy with Jack. Even if it was just to placate him, the older man was surprisingly decent at being a caring and considerate – hell, maybe even loving – partner when he wanted to be and Rhys bathed in the attention that he was receiving. Because it felt a little more worth it to be praised, kissed and adored when it wasn’t to the response of a particularly brutal murder or obscenely kinky sex.

Not that he would ever object to either of those, as they were both equally thrilling to him in very separate yet strangely similar ways, but it was nice to have a bit more depth with the older man – even if it was the same amount of depth as a two inch pond.

In fact, he was so delighted that he didn’t notice Jack sneak up behind him and pull Rhys into his lap, he let out a surprised squeak in response to the movement. Though it made sense that Jack laughed at him for it, it didn’t annoy him any less when the older man did it.

“Aren’t you freaking precious? You spook real easy, pumpkin? Yeah, you do.” Jack cooed and Rhys leaned back against the older mans’ chest comfortably as Jack spoke. The older man pulled him in a little bit closer, “My jumpy little bunny.”

Rhys pouted at that but decided not to respond and give Jack any more ammo to use against him – the older man really liked making fun of him, so much so that Rhys was sure that it was probably one of his favorite things to do, other than making grandiose amounts of money at Hyperion and killing people. He whined a little, “We should get up.” he said, “We’ve been fucking naked all day.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing.” the older man replied, just as sarcastic as he always was, “We had a lot of fun today, Rhysie and it was all, y’know, romantic and normal and all that crap you seem to love.”

Rhys rolled his eyes at that, “I really didn’t mean to turn this into a whole day thing.” he informed Jack, although he was almost entirely sure that the older man didn’t really care about any of the reasons Rhys had to avoid spending all day naked with his boyfriend – most of them surrounding the fact that he, in fact, was not a billionaire CEO and couldn’t just take an impromptu vacation whenever he wanted.

He was about to say something to the tune of that to the older man, when the door rang. Then a bunch of persistent, so much persistence that it became hellishly annoying, knocking followed it. Jack groaned, like it was the most inconvenient thing that he had ever had to deal with in his life.

“Don’t worry,” Rhys assured Jack, “I’ll get it. You…” he wrinkled his nose at the older man before he disentangled their limbs and got up off of the bed, “get some pants on.” he added as he quickly redressed himself. He walked into his living room and opened his door, surprised to find his younger sister practically jumping forward to give him a bone crushing hug.

“Why are you hugging me? I don’t think we’ve ever hugged like this.” Rhys groaned out, voice barely a whisper as his breath was restricted by Sasha’s insanely tight bear hug. “Did… did Felix die?” he tried, “Do you have cancer? Do I have cancer? Does Fiona have cancer?” he babbled out terrible out comes faster than Sasha would have been able to confirm or deny them, strangely enough with all of them following along the same bleak pattern.

Sasha pulled back, a smile on her face that told Rhys that none of them had cancer. Rhys’ face remained entirely confused and lost until she decided to speak, “So…You haven’t been having any troubles with Vasquez lately, right?” she chirped excitedly, “He hasn’t been bothering you for a while. No issues with Hugo Vasquez?”

“No…?” He answered, more like a question than anything else. “I… guess not?” he added, feeling utterly lost with where the conversation was going. “I’m confused, why are we talking about Vasquez right now? And why would anything about him be something that you’d be happy about?”

“God, you’re dense.” Sasha replied and Rhys almost screamed at her. Thankfully, his sister wasn’t so emotionally daft that she hadn’t noticed his frustration with the situation at hand. “Alright, so… apparently, Hugo Vasquez is missing.”

That got Rhys’ attention, “He’s- what’s he… where’s he… missing?” he babbled stupidly, “Like- like he’s…gone? Missing? Gone.”

“Yeah, Rhys.” Sasha deadpanned, looking at him like he was the most stupid person that she had ever come across in her life and it was safe to say that in that moment he definitely was, “That’s the literal definition of being missing.”

He threw his hands up in mock surrender in response to that, “Sorry. Jesus.” he replied with a touch more sarcasm than he should have used in his voice. “But… how is he missing? Did he just disappear?”

“Something like that.” She agreed, “In the sense that apparently he’s wanted for multiple felonies and he’s on the run.”

“What?” he repeated himself for what had to be the twentieth time that night, with the expectation that his sister had no real interest in telling him anything concrete. Truthfully, he wondered how Jack had managed to fake that.

“It’s what I heard from Yvette. Apparently the CEO of Hyperion was making a big deal about him embezzling something to the tune of ten million dollars and he disappeared that week.” She explained slowly, Rhys was still trying to wrap his head around everything that he had just heard. “So that whole problem is solved. Why aren’t you more excited? Your life is going to be soooo much easier now.”

‘So you would think.’ he thought with grim humor, knowing that it could never be considered unfounded when she said anything like that.

Sasha was a grifter, so was Fiona, so was their adoptive father and to some extent even their own mother hadn’t been innocent. Rhys had never been a criminal, had been perfect on paper for 27 years of his life and then he became the type of person that kills people. A murderer, Rhys was a murderer and even he didn’t understand where he made the jump from goody two-shoes to what you could only define as a sociopath.

Maybe he had always been that way or maybe he needed to be pushed in the right direction to become that person, Rhys doubted he would ever know – he didn’t care much to, in any case. The less he analyzed the fucked up, symbiotic relationship that he had with Jack Lawrence the better.

“… I don’t know.” Rhys replied, almost with entire honesty. It struck him in that moment that he could never really be honest with his sisters ever again. That was… weird for him to process so he avoided it like the plague, “I guess I’m just in shock or something? This is so weird. I never thought that it would end in him running from the cops.”

“How did you think it would end?” Sasha has a look on her face like she’s worried about Rhys’ mental health, but she doesn’t ask because she – probably – doesn’t want to know the answer, whatever it may be.

“I’unno.” Rhys replied in the most noncommittal way that he could. “Me dead? Or kidnapped? I was afraid of Hugo for a reason.” he sighed, “But you know, I guess that… it doesn’t really matter anymore and I’m sure he’ll find someone else to become obsessed with in whatever country he runs off to.” a smile graced his features, despite his own knowledge of what exactly had actually happened to Hugo Vasquez. “That’s um, wow… that’s great, actually.”

Externally, Rhys’ face was relaxed and relieved – a prototypical response to finding out that the guy who had been ruining your life by being too much of a creep was no longer going to be doing a thing to you – but internally, he was screaming and shaking with panic.

In that moment – because things just had to get a little more complicated for him, nothing in his life was allowed to be simple anymore – Jack walked through the threshold, thankfully he had at least put some pants on. He wouldn’t live it down if Sasha ended up seeing his boyfriends (?) dick just… hanging out there, like it did. Because Jack had no shame about anything in his life – especially his looks – that was something that Rhys had to worry about if he continued to date the older man.

Jack moved behind Rhys and slung an arm around the slimmer mans form, “Hey, pumpkin. Who’s this?” he asked, before pressing a chaste kiss to Rhys’ temple. Rhys almost screamed at him right then, in front of his sister and the rest of the world, for not letting him know beforehand.

Rhys opened his mouth and closed it as he tried to figure out the right way to put everything into words, “Jack, this is – um, this is my sister Sasha.” he explained in a way that probably sounded like Sasha was not his sister and in fact was here to rob his apartment, “She came here to tell me that, um… I told you about Vasquez right? Yeah, I did. Well… he is missing!” he did two thumbs up against his chest, belying the fury dancing in his eyes. “Apparently, he embezzled some money from Hyperion ?”

Jack didn’t seem worried about the implications of that in the least, “Yeah, kitten, I know that.” he said in a tone that managed to make Rhys feel just as stupid as he was irritated. “I mean it’s my damn company that he stole from.” the older man put on a tone of annoyance that almost managed to convince Rhys that it was genuine, “But I’m not too worried about it, even though I doubt he’ll get caught. Wherever that assholes’ going… prison would be better.”

Rhys pursed his lips, making mental notes to talk to Jack about everything that had just gone down as the older man gave him another kiss,“Sorry about all that. I meant to tell you but,” one of his hands moved down to squeeze Rhys’ hip and the other intertwined his fingers with Rhys’ own. “We got a little caught up with each other today.”

Sasha looked at him, completely unimpressed. “Really? You’re dating the CEO of Hyperion and never thought to tell us?” she deadpanned with her disbelief obvious in her tone. She flit her eyes between the two of them, “Seriously?”

“I told him not to.” Jack defended, holding Rhys just the slightest bit closer to him. Despite himself, the younger man took comfort in the hold. “Just wanted to make sure it was the real deal before we made it public,” he explained, “You know how it is.”

Sasha narrowed her eyes at him and Rhys mentally prepared himself for the impending disaster. He was surprised when she said, “Sure.” instead of telling Jack off like he deserved, at least a little bit. She looked back over at Rhys with an expression that said, ‘can you believe this asshole?’ before addressing the older man. “You should come over for one of our game nights and meet Fiona. She’s our older sister, I hope that Rhys told you about her.”

Rhys didn’t, he hadn’t had the chance to talk much about his family at all, but Jack didn’t really let on about that. “I’d be friggin’ delighted to meet Rhysies’ family.” he said in a tone of overwhelming self confidence, without any idea how insane Rhys’ family was.

In any case, Rhys didn’t bother to correct Jack. There was no chance that he would listen to Rhys and he was happy enough to let the older man discover how fucked they were himself.

“Cool,” She replied, in an equally confident tone. “We’ll see you this Saturday.” she added, “I’ll… leave you two, to do whatever” She pulled a face, “… you two do.” and before Rhys could think to say anything in reply to that she was out the door.

Jack and Rhys disentangled from each other and the older man noticed the anxious look on his partners face quickly, “Relax.” he soothed, figuring that Rhys was overreacting to the situation. “Everything will be fine, cupcake.”

Rhys sniffed, “This is not how I wanted you to meet my sisters.” he said, before composing his features into something more respectable. “But I guess there’s nothing I can do.” he added in an almost cheery tone, “Just be forewarned that they’re both awful and Fiona is going to interrogate the crap out of you.”

Hopefully Jack could deal with it, otherwise...it could end terribly, but Rhys wasn't going to think about that.

**Author's Note:**

> Rhys is such an impulsive magnet for trouble.


End file.
